![]() By March 2013, my play had become an obsession, and I challenged myself to post more in April in celebration of National Poetry Month. I turned some poems into greeting cards and shared a few on social media. My colleagues endured poems at every occasion, including the ordering of lunch ( The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins) and a favorite sandwich ( I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore). I started bringing my camera to the bookstore to document the ephemera. And partly because, in their various colors and typefaces and textures and weights, the words in the poems resembled Pop Art. Creating these pieces was fun, partly because the combining of words and images to draw a smile or a sigh reminded me of my work in advertising, finding a new way to see the everyday. Since our constructions of other people’s words appeared almost poem-like, we called them “found verses” and cracked ourselves up. Before we knew it, we’d composed verses to the universe and collaged notes to our pals. Considering their titles, we pulled one book from here, topped it with another from there. Not to be outdone by coincidence, we began our own rearrangements. We were punchy, but we’d discovered a game. Everywhere, genres mingled together: science fiction mixed with business, histories with mysteries, and so on-and we laughed as we read titles in their random arrangements. ![]() Advance copies from publishers balanced on boxes, pending a spot on the cart. Books waited to be gift wrapped, to be mailed, to be returned to the shelves, to be reordered, or to be sorted for returns. Small stacks seemed to cover every square inch of the shop. One rainy Sunday afternoon, in a lull that followed an especially strong rush of customers and friends, a colleague and I surveyed the resultant disarray. ![]() I also began to write and illustrate picture books, and in early 2011, I became a bookseller in a storied independent bookshop in Neptune Beach, Florida. An opportunity for our family eventually prompted a move, and I left agency life for freelance work and more time with my kids. Advertising and design was a natural fit, and I enjoyed a career as a creative director with respected national clients. With a book in one hand and a crayon in the other, I have played with words and pictures for as long as I can remember. I’ll never read all I’d like, but I’ll give it a try, because books-tangible objects of imagination and wonder-speak to me. I meander in museums and stalk beloved book spaces, losing time, and myself, in the stacks. ![]()
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