Bookmash — What is it?

Words are so much fun.  I even listen to podcasts about words as I do my almost-daily walk.

One of my favorite podcast shows is A Way With Words.  Recently, the two hosts discussed a term called “bookmash.”  I think in some places it is bookmash and in others it is book mash.

The term describes a fun activity where  you grab some of the books off your bookshelf or nightstand. Turn the stack on its side and read the titles. Sometimes they flow into a kind of poetic statement.

The Way With Words podcast referenced  Stan Carey’s blog Sentence First. His bookmash example was: Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes / Bugs / Creatures of The Earth / In The Shadow of Man

I had to try this. The bookshelf over my writing desk books that I own that have been signed by the author.

Here is my bookmash (without even rearranging the books):

The Ledge/The Thing/The A.M. God/Absent Memories/My Wish

Now you can try this fun exercise.

NOTE: Since I first wrote this blog post on a new way to create poetry, I found that it is also called book spine poetry.

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