When I first saw a book spine poem, about a month ago, I was excited to try it myself. I kept my eyes open, let my fingers run along the bottom edge of the shelved bindings. Finally, this week, I got inspired and filled a crate with books. Back upstairs to the bench for assembling and then had my husband take a peek at my layers of words!
(second line: A Taste of Blackberries)
(My husband gets credit for the "flipping" of the book, loved it).
My husband has been writing song lyrics on the driveway and then photographing them. It is what inspired a
haiku I wrote a few weeks ago; driveway as a canvas to a poem, anything is possible. He recently wrote some favorite lyrics from a Fleet Foxes song; upon reading it I wondered what inspired the lines. When I was making my book spine poems I opened up
Poetry Speaks, right to Yeats, and there was the inspiration.
As a result, I made a bit of an inspirational sandwich below.
Finding Innisfree
On my darkest day
Last year or today
Relief, though muddy
Emotions in the way.
A moment in my play
Carrying me away
Remembering, though muddy
Fleeting memories in the way.
My story shaped by pain
Preparing me today
Gratitude, though muddy
On my darkest day.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay an wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
