Hi everyone! I actually thought that the next post you’d be getting from me would be my review for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but since my preordered copy STILL hasn’t arrived, I guess that’ll have to wait 😪 Ah, the benefits of living in the middle of nowhere in a non-English-speaking country…

However, I saw Maisy over at Hawthorn Book Reviews make some book spine poems recently, and I thought it was a such a cool and creative idea! If you haven’t checked out her blog, you really should! Obviously, though, I had to try this myself, and if you’d like to as well, here are the rules:

1. You pick out some books from your bookshelf and turn the titles into a piece of poetry.
2. You can add punctuation, but no words.
3. You cannot use any books you have used before.
4. List the books and their authors that you used.

Anyway, here are the two poems I came up with – feel free to leave your interpretations in the comments down below! I think it’d be really interesting to see if your take on these matches what I thought while creating them. Nothing annoyed me more than when teachers in school were so fixated upon that “one right interpretation” that they were blinded towards other ways of reading a poem, so I’m genuinely curious what you think!

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Poem #1

The Exiled Queen

If I stay – tempests and slaughter.

Exit west, passenger, through the dark!

My place?

“The refugees?”

“Monsters of men.”

“Vicious.”

“Hag-seed.”

The hate you give – a gathering of shadows.

A dangerous path.

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The books I used:

• The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
• Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
• Through the Dark by Alexandra Bracken
• My Place by Sally Morgan
• The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
• Vicious by V.E. Schwab
• Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
• A Dangerous Path by Erin Hunter

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Poem #2

The Unseen World

Endless night, speaking from among the bones.

Dreams of gods and monsters.

All the light, we cannot see.

Just one day: SPEAK!

A conjuring of light – all the bright places – the beginning of everything.

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The books I used:

• The Unseen World by Liz Moore
• Endless Night by Agatha Christie
• Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
• Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Just One Day by Gayle Forman
• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
• The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

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Anyway, that’s it for today! I tag Abi @ The Knights Who Say Book, Althea @ Althea Reads, and Sam @ Dear Bookshelves – if you want to, that is 😉 And if anyone else wants to give this a go, consider yourself tagged! Feel free to also use library books or covers off the internet if you can’t find what you’re looking for in your personal library. I’d love to see what you guys come up with!

And, like I said, I’d love to hear your take on these poems! Have you read any of the books I used? Let’s chat in the comments!