Every so often I make a poem by stacking books on top of one another so their titles line up felicitously. I call them book spine poems, or bookmashes for short. Here’s a new one.
*
The Accidental Grammar
Voices in stone
breaking the rock:
the accidental grammar,
the loom of language,
the awakening of intelligence,
the mind’s eye reborn –
Renegade presence,
gifts of unknown things.
*
Some of these are recent additions to the bookshelf; a few are old favourites. There’s a strong bias towards non-fiction here, with Ali Smith’s the only novel. In 2013 I found a close ratio of fiction to non-fiction in my bookmashes, but I’ll have to review the figures, maybe when I’ve done 40 or 50 (we’re at 37 now).
Thanks to the featured authors and editors: Ernst Doblhofer, Jolene Babyak, Ali Smith, Frank Palmer, Frederick Bodmer, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Douglas Hofstadter & Daniel Dennett, Susan Sontag, Mark E. Smith, Patsy Rodenburg, and Lyall Watson.
Most are debutants on Sentence first, though Palmer, Dennett, Sontag and Hofstadter have had cameos before and Lyall Watson appeared in passing in a post about barking animals. I try not to reuse titles, but Sontag’s was in ‘Virtual light in the heart of the sea’, which is one of the few I’m satisfied with.
For earlier book spine poems, including links to other people’s, you can browse the archive here.
Sentence first 
Novel idea
…in need of more novels.
This is the best poem yet!
I’m not so happy with it, but thank you!
Well done! I wonder if the dadaists ever used this – er – compositional technique.
Not that I’m aware of – it strikes me as too organised for them – but there are broad parallels with their ‘cut-up’ method.
When I saw the title I thought there was a book called ‘The accidental grammar’ and I wanted to know what it was about.
Yes, “The Accidental Grammar” (AN accidental grammar?) is a title that’s longing for a book to make it whole.
Accidence will happen!
The title works, I think, whether taken to be commenting on existing grammars or suggesting something novel. Accidence Will Happen is, pleasingly, already the name of a book on usage (by Oliver Kamm), which I mentioned here last year.
I first encountered it in the first Asterix book, which was translated into English, I have just found from Kamm’s book, by Kamm’s mother, Anthea Bell. It took many many re-readings and a trip to the dictionary to discover that it wasn’t a typo.
The Mind’s I…or The Mind’s Eye…
Love the mash, most excellent.
Thank you. The title of Hofstadter and Dennett’s book is an apt pun given its subject matter.
“Gifts of unknown things” is a poem in itself.
It is a lovely phrase. The title of Watson’s book about the wind is similarly evocative: Heaven’s Breath.
This one is my favourite so far.
Oh, thank you!
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[…] of these books and authors have featured before. You can browse the full archive of book spine poems, which […]