Spine Poetry

SPINE POETRY

WHAT IS SPINE POETRY?

A book spine cento is a found poem composed from book titles.

Cento: a poetical work composed solely of verses or passages taken

from other authors.

You create the poem by stacking the books into lines of poetry

Poems can be topical or tell a story.

CATS

BROKEN HEART

THE WORRY WEEK

LEMMINGS

SPINE POEM HAIKU

THE VAMPIRE STALKER

WRITING

ISSA’S POEM

LAUREN’S POEM

JEWL’S POEM

TIPS FOR CREATING A SPINE POEM

Check out examples of spine poems.

Get to a place with plenty of books. A library works nicely.

Start looking at titles, and see what strikes you. Arrange and rearrange in your head. The best part of this type of poetry is the fact that you don’t know where you’ll end up.

Have a pencil and paper with you to write down titles that stand out – you can refer back to them later.

Don’t be afraid to use the library catalog to look up titles with specific words or phrases that fit.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Create 5-8 lines of spine poetry. This can be several poems or one longer poem.

You must use the physical book to create your poem.

Choose a title that ties together your ideas.

Once your poem is complete, we must take a photo.

All books must be reshelved.