The Magnetic Poetry, Book of Poetry

by Dave Kapell, Sally Steenland, Robert Pinsky (Foreword)

A combination anthology, primer, and custom Magnetic Poetry set, this handy, spiral-bound book with a magnet-ready inside front cover is a complete portable poetry kit. Taking poetry out of the academy and into the neighborhoods, here are poems from schoolchildren and stockbrokers, grandmothers, housewives, and punk rockers. "The Magnetic Poetry Book of Poetry "comes with a vinyl pouch that includes more than 100 word tiles, offering many words not available in other Magnetic Poetry kits-open the front cover, and start composing. And if you get stuck, a poetry primer shows how to polish that verse. From ways to approach poetry-sound, rhythm, visual impact. To forms-haiku, lune, cinquain. To writing exercises-lists, menus, concrete poems, rhymes and alliterations, and more. Foreword by Robert Pinsky.
159,000 copies in print

Genres: Poetry

144 pages, Spiral-bound

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Danna]

A fun short-term hobby in its day. I love the way the little magnets encourage a visual element of expression and having such a small set encourages creativity in blending different pieces to make longer, more intricate words. The clever flower-shaped poem on the inside back cover is one of my favorites. I read through it once more today before I set it free on a book and magazine give-away table at work next week.

And now for a story: I was given this book during our first semester of living in Austin, a hugely stressful time. This was the first and only poem I ever made with the pieces that came with the book; it was for Tom, who was ever so patient with me during that fall when I worked at the school from hell. We liked it so much I didn't want to break it up and make anything new. Now here's that poem in handy digital form; I don't have a title for it, I just think of it as "That Poem for Tom".

morning

shower dirty skin
crack through this minute
stagger to work
immense day consumes me

teach books pages
tongues pronounce
hey people what did I tell you
do not run put it away
she bruised him I go wild

evening

liquid dark
a full meal burned
these are the blues

yet with you my love
summer is here

[Sara Diane]

This is a fun book that compiles tons of poems that were composed using Magnetic Poetry ® sets. I found it a while back and got it, mostly because the cover is magnetic and it came with words. I've since fallen in love with a few of the poems. Some are long, some are short, some make sense and some do not. It's fun to read and every time I do, I get very eager to play with my Magpo sets Here are some of my favorites:

this child was born of a ferocious will
she would question the universe
if it could answer ~Anon

I tell cows
about you ~Ivan Fischman

a thousand roses will not do
I ache for the smell of you
~Susan Johnson

the symphony of a thousand fiddles
is less beautiful than you
~Amy Lythgoe

purple must think
blue always dreamed
of pink ~Candace B. Gallagher

[Danielle Palmer]

This book is a lot of fun. All the poems included were ones submitted by average people - poems you can’t find anywhere but here. Some of them made sense and some of them didn’t, some of them were written by children and some by adults, some were written by people who were highly educated and some by people that have nearly no education. Highly recommend.

[Mangy Cat]

I'm not a huge fan of general poetry (*ducks swipes from die hard poets*), but I AM a fan of great poetry. There were a handful of gems in this book, but nothing particularly memorable. The "love" chapter left something to be desired (no pun intended) with a smattering of strange compositions, some of which were written by minors. *blink*

Magpo (Magnetic Poetry) however is both fascinating and fun. It did make me want to put up my own little magnetic words on the fridge again. If only they wouldn't fall to the floor within reach of my 2-year old's mouth.