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March 29, 2013 by Travis Jonker

Poetry Friday: In a Messy Room

March 29, 2013 by Travis Jonker   10 comments

Well here we are, the final Friday before National Poetry Month begins. On April 2 I’ll be posting a gallery of your book spine poem submissions. Here are my tips for making your own. You want in? Email your poems to me at scopenotes (at) gmail (dot) com or post them to your blog and let me know in the comments. I’ll add to the gallery for the entire month of April.

As for today, here’s my attempt. It holds the distinction of being the most meta ever, because I included a book about book spine poems – the recently released Sorted Books by Nina Katchadourian (review forthcoming).

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It’s Poetry Friday! Check out the round-up at A Year of Reading.

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About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. LInda Baie says

    March 29, 2013 at 9:21 am

    I like the “messy rooms”, Travis. It adds to the story in your poem-both funny and a little sad.

  2. Andromeda Jazmon says

    March 29, 2013 at 2:47 pm

    This is a great one! I am not committing to anything this NPM but your spine poem invitation is compelling. I’ll see what I see on my bookshelves.

  3. Ruth says

    March 29, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    Oh yes, definitely very meta! Nice work!

  4. Catherine Johnson says

    March 29, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    Great spine poem!

  5. Christine Sturgeon says

    March 29, 2013 at 3:08 pm

    I had such fun with 6th graders doing this! See some of the poems here: http://christinesturgeon.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/spine-poetry-take-one/

  6. Joyce Ray says

    March 30, 2013 at 1:16 pm

    Travis, I love your spine poem. I think I bring the experience of sorting through my mom’s things to my reading. It’s amazing how this little poem says so much.

  7. Robyn Hood Black says

    March 30, 2013 at 9:01 pm

    Love this poem here, and I look forward to all the fun ones forthcoming in April.
    (I was going to send you some from a school visit yesterday, but we were in the gym rather than the library. I showed an example on a slide, though, so hopefully they’ll try it out, too!)

  8. Rebecca Dunn says

    April 1, 2013 at 12:14 pm

    Alright Travis… Here’s my spine poem submission:
    http://www.sturdyforcommonthings.com/2013/04/april-is-poetry-month/
    Happy National Poetry Month!

  9. The Brain Lair says

    April 1, 2013 at 2:23 pm

    I’m going to try one a day!

    http://www.thebrainlair.com/2013/04/spine-poetry-who-are-you.html

  10. Ann Finkelstein says

    April 2, 2013 at 6:26 am

    How fun is this! Here’s mine:
    http://annfinkelstein.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-spine-poetry.html

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