Posted in Book Talk

Spine poetry – life of a refugee

I’ve seen this wonderful idea on instagram, that I don’t have enough physical books to participate in myself anymore. The idea is to take a look through your books and create a poem from the titles you have. I LOVE that, but alas, moving so often means I’ve had to cut down my physical collection.

But I’m adaptable! So instead, I’ve pored through some of the book I have listed on Goodreads to create a poem. It actually ended up holding a good deal of meaning for me, so here’s what I got on my first attempt!

They called us enemy
Run away
New kid
This is my America
A love hate thing


The story…

I think it tells a story, one that ends with possibilities. For example, I debated having Brigid Kemmerer help end this instead of A Love Hate Thing, but I decided I wanted to be a little bit less dark with it.

What came to mind for me was that of people facing violence in their home country, and persecution that put them in a dangerous place. They make the difficult choice to leave and try to find a home somewhere else, where they are the perpetual new kid. It’s not easy, and their new home has bright and dark sides, particularly for an immigrant. Time will determine which side dominates.

I fell in love with this!

This might be one of my new favorite pasttimes. If you’ve ever done spine poetry, drop me a link in the comments so I can check out what you’ve got! And if you haven’t, now’s your chance to share some gems (or some silliness). 😁 I’ve seen some people with really clever ones. I’ve got some work to do before I’m at that level, I think. I’m looking forward to the practice!

Author:

Reader, traveler, photographer, and always looking to learn!

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