poem makes book

A single poem that made the book.

bridge too far

He wanted to review poetry books but couldn’t imagine reading a bad one to the last line.

marketing plan

The poet’s distribution strategy was to drive around town putting his new book inside all the tiny library stanchions he could find.

plain and floral

The book’s poems were rather plain, while the book’s blurbs were beyond florid.

typical hiding place

A book is where one must read through 75 pages to find one poem.

paper tomb

In the internet age, books are where poems go to die.

written in sand

The poet thought he held his new poetry book in his hands, but as he read it turned into a handful of sand running through his fingers.

the poem

I’m more interested in the poem than the book of poems.

not blocked enough

After reading a book with two-thirds too many pages of poetry, I wished that more poets complained of ‘publication block’.

singleton

Someone who wrote poems, not books.

uses of poetry

Sitting at a café table, I noticed a poetry book had been jammed under one leg to keep the table from wobbling.

inflection point

A book of poems that if it didn’t change the course of poetry, at least inflected it.

shows promise

Sometimes it’s enough that reading a poem makes you want to read another or the next one.

not this, not that...

If a poet flips through his/her book at a reading, that’s probably a bad sign. Shouldn’t almost any poem one turns to in the book be worth reading aloud?

stacked and racked

It was a poetry book with a high body count.

waiting for light

Paintings stacked in a basement; poems in an unopened book.

known by heart

Without glancing at the contents page or index he cracked open the book at the very poem he wanted to read again.

broadcast range

If this book was a radio station it would be classified as ‘easy listening’ or ‘soft rock’.

book as wallet

Like opening your wallet to find it filled with ones and fives, the book didn’t seem to carry any poems of higher denomination.

life force

The book of poems was so good you believed at any moment it would animate, turn into a kind of bird, and fly from your hands.