I have the spoons and I’m in-between moving prep tasks, so I’m taking this moment to share one of my favorite formats to experiment with: book-spine poetry!
I’m available for paid poetry readings (virtual only) and poetry commissions!
Email: lucasscheelk (at) gmail (dot) com
What exactly is book-spine poetry?
Popularized by Nina Katchadourian’s 1993 Sorted Books Project, a book-spine poem is creating a poem using book-spines.
Some go from top-to-bottom. Bottom-to-top.
Fewer book-spine poems read from right-to-left (or vice versa), but it’s possible.
Nina Katchadourian’s challenge to readers in The Art Assignment:
“So your assignment is to work in somebody’s library who you know or that you would like to know better, and to make a portrait of them by making three clusters of books. Each cluster can have as many books as you want. But you have to think a lot of the physical qualities of the books and make sure that your book stack reads clearly. You might want to line up the titles flush left. And in the end, it should be a portrait of that person."
Book-Spine Poetry Examples
[using the top book as the title] | [mixture of personal books & public library books]
Example #1:
In book-spine poetry, depending on which direction you start, the first book used would be the title.
Here, “Gender Outlaws” is the title.
Another thing to play with is the use of grammar (adding plurals, conjunctions, etc.).
Gender Outlaws
Shekhinah speaks
dead dad jokes (and)
prayer(s) for a non-religious autistic
a million quiet revolutions
more than organs (and)
water I won't touch
knot bod(ies)
tiny pieces of skull(s)
wound from the mouth of a wound
DON'T. call us dead!
Example #2:
Whose Torah?
the best awful
minyan
Spock's world
ghosts and golems
capable monsters
born to kvetch
an unquiet mind
(omg! that's me!)
knot body
referential body
twice blessed
depression & other magic tricks
the uninhabitable
where grief resides
beyond victims and villains
Example #3:
Whose Torah?
an unquiet mind
knot body / embodied
indecent
ghosts and golems
If you can't say anything nice, say it in Yiddish
Acrostic-Spine Poetry
Bouncing off of book-spine poetry, acrostic-spine poetry is an acrostic poem made out of book-spines.
As far as I’m aware (I always aim to give credit where credit is due), I came up with acrostic-spine poetry in Jan 2023 while fucking around with book-spine poetry.
I’m currently working on an acrostic-spine poem using my title of my book, “A Prayer For A Non-Religious Autistic.”
For readers familiar with me writing long poems and even longer titles, this endeavor is going to take a while lol.
In the meanwhile, I have an example of what an acrostic-spine poem can look like.
Using acrostic rules, I utilize the first letter of the book title in the book-spine (in each line) to create a word or phrase.
For this example, the title of the piece is MAD MENSCH.
Mask for Mask A million quiet revolutions Disability Visibility Mourning & mitzvah Exiled in the word Next to normal: Shekhinah; Crip kinship (is) How we live now
I’m no more an expert in poetry than any of my poetry peers, but book-spine (and acrostic-spine) poetry is for everyone.
Places where you can experiment with book-spines:
Home library
School library
Public library
Synagogues, Mosques, and other religious spaces
Community centers
& anywhere you find a stack of books!
Another fundamental belief I hold is that you don’t need a degree to be a poet!
SOURCES:
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Kate Bornstein & S. Bear Bergman)
Shekhinah Speaks (Joy Ladin)
Dead Dad Jokes (Ollie Schminkey)
A Prayer For A Non-Religious Autistic (Lucas Scheelk)
A Million Quiet Revolutions (Robin Gow)
More Than Organs (Kay Ulanday Barrett)
Water I Won't Touch (Kayleb Rae Candrilli)
knot body (Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch)
Tiny Pieces of Skull (Roz Kaveney)
wound from the mouth of a wound (torrin a. greathouse)
Don’t Call Us Dead (Danez Smith)
Whose Torah?: A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism (Whose Religion?) (Rebecca T. Alpert)
The Best Awful (Carrie Fisher)
Minyan: Ten Principles for Living a Life of Integrity (Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro)
Spock’s World (Diane Duane)
Ghosts and Golems (Michele Palmer & Malka Penn)
Born To Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (Michael Wex)
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison)
OMG! That’s Me! (Dave Mowry)
Referential Body (Rosie Accola)
Twice Blessed: On Being Lesbian or Gay, and Jewish (Christie Balka & Andy Rose)
Depression & Other Magic Tricks (Sabrina Benaim)
The Uninhabitable (Jesse Rice-Evans)
Mishkan Aveilut: Where Grief Resides (Central Conference of American Rabbis)
Beyond Victims and Villains: Contemporary Plays by Disabled Playwrights (ed. Victoria Ann Lewis)
Embodied: An Intersectional Feminist Comics Poetry Anthology (ed. Wendy Chin-Tanner & Tyler Chin-Tanner)
Indecent (Paula Vogel)
Capable Monsters (Marlin M. Jenkins)
If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish: The Book of Yiddish Insults and Curses (Lita Epstein)
Mask For Mask (JD Scott)
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century (edited by Alice Wong)
Mourning & Mitzvah: A Guided Journal for Walking the Mourner’s Path Through Grief to Healing (Anne Brener)
Exiled in the Word: Poems & Other Visions of the Jews from Tribal Times to Present (ed. Jerome Rothenberg & Harris Lenowitz)
Next to Normal (music by: Tom Kitt; book and lyrics by: Brian Yorkey)
Shekhina (photographs by: Leonard Nimoy)
Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid (Shayda Kafai)
How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic (Bill Hayes)
If you’ve made it to the end, please consider…
donating to the Neurodiversity and Gentle Parenting Journey...in Color fundraiser by Morénike Giwa Onaiwu!
joining the Letters For The Lost campaign (writing a letter for every official COVID death, or about 1,130,000)!
checking out Crip Care!
reading ANMLY #36 :: it’s a good day to be trans folio!
reading Split This Rock’s “and so much lost you’d think / beauty had left a lesson: Poetry & Grief” from their 2023 Poetry Coalition Programming!
donating to the Autistic People of Color Fund!