NOYS: Spine Poetry

It's National Poetry Month! Have you encouraged your library's teens to submit a poem to our contest yet? Sitting down and writing out poetry can be difficult for some, but here's something anyone can do and it's a super easy on-the-spot program idea. Have teens go to the bookshelves and skim the titles on the spines. Which can go together to form a poem? Here is an example of spine poetry.


Every Girl Tells a Story
Just listen,
Word after word after word
My sisters' voices,
Nothing but the truth.
Wild girl
Outspoken
Tender
The courage to be yourself
Things left unsaid 
I hadn't meant to tell you this
Nevermind 
Her stories




Try it! It doesn't even have to be a program--you could do it yourself as a great 3-D display. Have fun, and take pictures--we can post them here and on the wiki. If you need help posting the photos you can always email them to anyone in Youth Services.

Happy National Poetry Month!