Review: SPINE POEMS: AN ECLECTIC COLLECTION OF FOUND VERSE FOR BOOK LOVERS

I've found my new favorite poetry book. It is different than any other poetry book I've ever read -- it is verse, art, quotes, quips, and little info blurbs. It is really everything I like about all of those things.

Author Annette Dauphin Simon started out as a bookseller in Florida in 2011. One especially busy day left the bookstore in a mess, with books all over the place that needed to be sorted and reshelved. 

"Everywhere, genres mingled together: science fiction mixed with business, histories and mysteries, and so on -- and we laughed as we read titles in their random arrangements. We were punchy, but had discovered a game. Not to be outdone by coincidence, we began our own arrangements....Since our constructions of the other people's words appeared almost poem-like, we called them 'found verses'...I was hooked" (10).

Since that time, Simon has discovered other poets who have discovered and used found poetry. Another recent favorite of mine is Kate Baer's 2021 I Hope This Finds You Well, which gathers erasure poems created from notes her supported and detractors sent her. Author Annie Dillard said, "By entering a found text as a poem, the poet doubles its context. The original meaning remains intact, but now it swings between two poles. The poet adds the element of delight."

That would describe my reaction to these spine poems -- DELIGHTED.

A little history of poetry / Your voice in my head / Floating in a most peculiar way

 

The book is set up loosely by categories. There is even a Table of Content page with headings like: Cooking, Parenting, True Crime, etc. Each spine poem is accompanied by a page of quotes/quips/blurbs on the topic or about the author. In other words, they are somehow loosely related to the spine poem on the opposite page.

Let me show you an example:

Spine poem. This is one of my favorites!

Opposite page: The found poem in print and six blurbs related to it.

 

I couldn't help myself. I had to share the spine poems with whoever was nearby.

I shared this one with my husband as he was doing the dishes 😆

Third bullet: "A 2016 study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family found when heterosexual couples share chores, they have more sex." 😂

I shared this spine poem with my daughters who both had to work from home during COIVD lockdowns. Both have cats that potentially interrupted their Zoom meetings. 😜

Lastly, I shared this one with the family concerning our last Thanksgiving which turned into a fiasco. Things definitely fell about. 😁

Clearly I am quite taken with the spine poems in this volume but I also loved reading the little quotes and blurbs. They broadened out the reading experience. I bet you will enjoy them both, too.

Here's one more, for good measure:

The kitchen is certainly the heart of our home, our sanctuary.

-Anne