Book Spine Poetry

Sometimes when you’re feeling tired or uninspired and you need to
find your creativity, you can find it in unexpected places…

A few years ago I discovered Book Spine Poetry and had a go. This week, after meltdowns and shutdowns I needed to recover my imagination and found it on my bookshelves!

Poems can be long or short – whatever you choose – just grab a few titles and see what you can conjure up.

An inspector calls love in the present tense,
reasons to stay alive.

(J.B. Priestley, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Matt Haig)

Across the wall – I capture the castle,
the castle of adventure.

(Garth Nix, Dodie Smith, Enid Blyton)

How to stop time, 
just one look, second star to the right, 
and a Hatfull of Sky.
The slow regard of silent things, linger…
Hold tight.

(Matt Haig, Harlan Coben, Deborah Hautzig, Terry Pratchett, Patrick Rothfuss, Maggie Stiefvater, Harlan Coben)

Snow sisters linger, before I die…

(Carol Lovekin, Maggie Stiefvater, Jenny Downham)

The ice dragon,
catching fire,
falling across the wall,
looking for Alaska…

(G.R.R. Martin, Suzanne Collins, Sharon Dogar, Garth Nix, John Green)

If I stay…
Tell no one.

(Gayle Forman, Harlan Coben)

Tell me what’s on your bookshelves and make poetry…

Give it a go.

 

TLT Throwback – Fall

Shivering chill, penetrates deep, piercing frozen marrow.

I am lost, and I hold fragile, autumn leaves, crushed,

bloodless, between my forsaken fingers – like my heart.

Joining in Grace Black’s TLT Throwback – Twenty-eight, as I just couldn’t resist this autumn leaves photograph.

Prompt: Fall. 3 lines, 10 words max per line…

TLT Throwback – Alone

My fingers thread through strings of cosmic fairy lights,

drawing acres of studded satin across the glitter globe.

And beneath the stillness of infinity, I bring night’s dance…

Joining in Grace Black’s TLT Throwback – Fifteen, as I just couldn’t resist this photograph.

Prompt: Alone. 3 lines, 10 words max per line…

TLT Throwback – Destination

Source

Like waterfall mist – tears imbue my soliloquy.

Overflowing my hollowed heart – like a music box

of memories – as I slip into soft, sweet melancholy…

Joining in Grace Black’s TLT Throwback – Four, as I just couldn’t resist this photograph.

Prompt: Destination. 3 lines, 10 words max per line…

Book Spine Poetry

Today, I discovered #BookSpinePoetry for the first time courtesy of The Conclave of Sappho…and decided to give it a try. I not only had fun perusing my bookcases and shelves, but I rediscovered old books, new books, borrowed books, books I’d forgotten about and books I can’t wait to read or re-read!

My first go gave me this:

The fearless fire-eaters looking for Alaska,
Stand a little taller across the wall…

(Emma Pass, David Almond, John Green, Gordon B. Hinckley, and Garth Nix)

What I was, impossible stardust, 
How I live now, beneath the distant star,
Falling, before I die…

(Meg Rosoff, Nancy Werlin, Neil Gaiman, Meg Rosoff,
Lisa Shambrook, Sharon Dogar, Jenny Downham)

After the first death, 
If I stay, 
Linger, forever…

(Robert Cormier, Gayle Forman, Maggie Stiefvater, Judy Blume)

I capture the castle beneath the rainbow,
under the greenwood tree, across the wall,
through the looking glass, when no one was looking…

(Dodie Smith, Lisa Shambrook, Thomas Hardy, Garth Nix, C.S. Lewis, Rosemary Wells)

What’s on your bookshelf and what poetry can you make? 

Pop over to Millie’s blog post on The Conclave of Sappho
and check out her beautiful bookspine poem 
and then have a go yourself! 

Feel free to share your poems in the comments below…
(I want to know what’s on your bookshelf too!)

 

The Fascinating World within Nature’s Carpet – Gathering Moss

Moss swathes the forest floor, old stone walls, and creeps leisurely onward.
It drapes the trees and cloaks the ground in a jewelled garment of green.
Moss creates its own miniature ecosystem – a forest within itself.

Brechfa Forest © Lisa Shambrook

My favourite colour is very much lead by nature and lends itself to my romantic soul which finds delight in anything serene and beautiful. My favourite colour is the honey green of moss, the earthy colour of the forest floor softened by the peridot jewel tone.

When I need to unwind or just return to my roots, I wander in the forests and the earthy tones of green and soft breeze lull my soul.

Robin Wall Kimmerer © Lisa Shambrook

 

 

 

 

 

There are over 1,000 species of moss in Britain, with more yet to be discovered, though many people only notice two or three varieties. If you get right down on the woodland ground you’ll see the intricate detail and real ecosystem living right there in amongst the moss and lichen, especially if you have a magnifying glass. Moss is nature’s carpet.

Reindeer Moss © Lisa Shambrook

Moss and lichens don’t have root systems, they anchor themselves with rhizoids. They don’t draw nourishment from the ground but through photosynthesis, air and water. They hold many times their own weight in water and aid the forest as sponging, cooling and humidifying systems. They are also able to go dormant when they’re under stress.

Elan Valley – Haircap Moss © Lisa Shambrook

They have great strength, especially as they grow dense and low to the ground, but they are still vulnerable. They are stripped for the florist industry and are constantly trod upon. As our society, towns and farms spreads into their territory they try to grow, as you’ll see on walls, paving slabs and rooves, but many new building materials are not moss friendly. Many people will also treat moss with weed-killer killing off their tiny ecosystems. My garage shares its roof with my neighbour’s garage and my side of the roof was blanketed with little hedgehogs of cushion moss, and my neighbour, who follows a regimented gardening style used a weed-killer to remove the moss and thereby prevent damp in the garage. This made me sad – I suppose I don’t mind a little damp…

Moss in its element © Lisa Shambrook

One of my most favourite places locally is the Brechfa Forest. It’s like a fairy-tale forest and I expect to bump into Galadriel. Moss covers the forest floor in a springy carpet and drapes like feathery curtains from the fir trees. It’s a magical walk, and the dog loves it too!

Moss in Brechfa © Lisa Shambrook

Robin Wall Kimmerer © Lisa Shambrook

What do you love about moss? Or do you have a different favourite woodland flora?
One of my most favourite photos is one I took on Exmoor of a tree swathed in moss…pure magic…

Exmoor moss swathed tree © Lisa Shambrook

Those Moments before Sleep – which you’ll Never Remember…

I don’t know why the human brain allows us to conjure up
such brilliance as we fall asleep, but it does.

Keep a notebook beside your bed and use it…and the ironic thing is my quote above was scribbled into my phone on One Note almost as I fell asleep…so you truly might just capture that moment of magic.

Bekah’s GCSE art from 2009 and The Doctor’s Journal of Impossible Things from ‘Human Nature’ episode, where John Smith keeps a journal of his dreams.

Don’t lose those thoughts, storylines, plans and grand ideas…keep a pen and notebook by your bed, or memo app on your phone…and write them down! 

Will Self said on writing:
“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.”

Three Line Thursday: The Argentine

Photo by Matt Adamik

Amid earthshine on the barren desert floor, we tango, hesitant

but sure. We hook, caress and incline, pivot and glide,

and sweep until, spent, we slip into night’s yearning penumbra…

My Three Line Thursday prose…30 words, 10 per line max…what can you say about the photo?

Three Line Thursday: Glisten

© Natalie Bowers

When desire glistens deep inside your searching eyes

And your wanton lust and searing soul roam the room  

I will be the one who engages your heart…

My Three Line Thursday prose…30 words, 10 per line max…what can you say about the photo?