Column: Children relish poetry, at least in one format

I recently wrote in this space about celebrating April as National Poetry Month. Thus, I was reminded that now was the perfect time to do some book spine poetry.

I’m a school librarian. I first did this activity last fall, with sophomore English students. This time round, I decided eighth-graders would come to the library to make poetry.

I did not invent book spine poetry. I read about it on the Internet. Last fall,  sophomores were coming in for library orientation, and I wanted to do something different with them. I wanted them to be engaged, not bored.

The premise of book spine poetry is simple. You take books and pile them on top of one other and create a poem. The titles on the spines form the poem.  I made this one as an example for the students: “Airman/Reached/The Last of the Mohicans/After the Snow.”

Although it may seem a daunting task to find titles that can form a poem, it really isn’t. The best book titles are lyrical and suggestive—that is, they are designed to make you want to pick up the book and take a closer look.

Here are two created by the high school students:

“A Difficult Boy/On the Devil’s Court/All-American Girl/Waiting/Love Rules.”

And: “In the Dark Places/I’ll Give You the Sun/Don’t Turn Around/Don’t Stop Now.”

The mind works in mysterious ways, especially if you just let yours roam. You will make those unconscious connections between “dark” and “sun.” You see “Don’t Turn Around” and then, a few shelves away, you spot “Don’t Stop Now.” Perfect!

I wasn’t going to make any poems of my own with the eighth-graders. I was just going to help them, and take photos of their finished products. But I found myself looking at book spines, and within two shelves I found this one: “Dark Angel/Deadville/Glimmer/The Story of You.” I called it “Hopeful.”

Learning from experience, I changed things up a bit for the middle-schoolers. I created a worksheet for them. This consisted of seven boxes, and lines for a title and their name. They were instructed to create poems using four to seven books, write the titles down and then name their poems. I’d then take photos of their poems.

I also suggested that they try to find at least one title that had a verb in it. That would add structure to each poem.

Their teacher wanted them to read their poems aloud after these tasks were completed, which I thought was a great idea. After running over these details, we set them loose.

I immediately noticed some differences from the high school students. Some of the eighth-graders went right into the non-fiction stacks. I had thought novels were a better choice for this activity, but poetry, by its very nature, should be a free-range experience. I was eager to see what the students would come up with.

Others had a specific agenda in mind. That is, they had a concept of what they wanted to write. Two girls, working together, wanted to write about Justin Bieber. They went off in search of a biography. Some students went to the online catalog to find titles. This ran contrary to my vision of book spine poetry; the books are supposed to be “found” at random. However, once again, I did not want to crimp their style.

The results were excellent. I wondered if their poems would be of the same quality as those created by students two years older than them, but I think their enthusiasm and dedication to the activity gave them an edge. As one boy exclaimed as he ran off to the stacks, “I am so hyped to do this!”

Here are a few of my favorites:

“George Washington/The Alchemist/Annexed/The One/Alexander Hamilton.” (“The Life of George Washington”)

“Girls Like Us/Rumble/With You or Without You/In Other Lands. (“Independent”)

“I am the Cheese/The Body Finder/The Art of War/The Body in the Suitcase/The Mold in Dr. Florey’s Coat.” (“The Many Identities of Cheese.”)

The students were rightly proud of their poems, and many posed with their stacks of books for photos I later posted on Facebook.

We gathered together so they could read their poems aloud. All three librarians and the students’ teacher participated. We listened and then snapped our fingers in approval, like we were at a beat poetry reading.

In the last class, one boy was very excited about his poem. He even got up to read it, standing in the spot where I stood to give the students their instructions for the period.

“Hitler’s Secret/The Terrorist/Origami/Chickens.”

That one got my award for the funniest of the day.

Students enjoy making poetry. They enjoy hands-on activities. They like to share their work with their peers and adults.

We adults appreciated the chance to witness their creativity and engagement. We will make bulletin boards and window displays with the poems. And, lucky me, the other eighth-grade English class is coming in this week to do it all over again.