Poetry can be found in the most surprising places. See if you can spot some in the wild
The wonderful thing about poetry is that you can find it anywhere. Look around you and you’ll find words creating images in billboards, graffiti, on cereal packets... A well-crafted poem is a thing of beauty, certainly, but ‘found’ poetry is somehow more magical: two words that accidentally rhyme, or mirror each other, or simply form a new meaning, having collided completely by accident feels like a happy secret.
In our October issue, our ‘Gallery’ feature took images from the book Spine Poems by Annette Dauphin Simon (Harper Design). Spine Poetry (see the one above) began as a game in a Florida bookshop when Annette and her colleagues would compete to spot the hidden poetry in the spines of randomly stacked books. So the one pictured above reads:
Like my father always said
Listen to your mother
Listen to your heart
Listen to your Gut.
What’s for dinner?
Clever, isn’t it? You can read a few more of the Spine Poems from page 44 of the October issue. We were so enchanted by the idea, we thought we’d see what a Simple Things Spine Poem from the last 12 months would look like. For those who don’t keep their back issues lined up beautifully on their book shelves, here’s our Spine Poem taken from the magazine’s spines from last November to this October.
Building Bonfires & making gifts
Taking time to live well
Candles & clementines
Snowdrops & seedheads
Bunches of flowers & sunny day cycling
Easter chocolate & spring adventures
Floral dresses & being outdoors
Salad days & summer nights
Lavender fields & lemon spritzers
Jolly sunflowers & going barefoot
Ripe tomatoes & trying something new
Birthday cake & gathering seeds
We’d love to see your spine poems, too. Do snap a picture and comment on our blog or tag us on your social media with your own Spine Poem pictures.
Image taken from Spine Poems by Annette Dauphin Simon (Harper Design) which is released on 13 October and can be ordered now.
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