Poems for Squares - by Elyse Hart (Paperback)

About the Book

Take a peek inside the lives of 29 individuals with this lively collection of poems inspired by real people's Instagram accounts.

Book Synopsis

Poems for Squares: 29 Instagram Accounts in Verse is a full-color collection of ekphrastic poetry and photography that takes readers on a journey through the Instagrammable moments of 29 individuals' lives. Inspired by Instagram photos, these poems offer imaginative interpretations of everything from landscapes to pets to tattoos. With wit, wisdom, and soul, poet Elyse Hart brings these photos to life, expanding the possibilities of ekphrastic poems.

A native of Southern California and author of the chapbook White Noise Crucible (Bottlecap Press), Elyse Hart has been featured in a number of literary publications, including Slipstream, The Nervous Breakdown, Maudlin House, and Ghost City Review. Her work has been praised for its humor and ability to create new worlds.

Poems for Squares takes readers on a journey through the personal, the everyday, and the special moments of life. From parties and friendships to cats and selfies, Elyse Hart covers it all in this vibrant and inventive collection. Each poem is accompanied by four Instagram photos, offering a visual complement to the words on the page.

This collection is the perfect gift for anyone who loves poetry, photography, and social media culture. It makes a wonderful addition to any coffee table or contemporary poetry collection and is suitable for both adults and teens.

With its mix of funny poems and more serious reflections on the ups and downs of life, Poems for Squares offers something for everyone. Whether you're a fan of beat poetry, imagist poetry, surrealist poetry, or contemporary American poetry, you'll find something to enjoy in the charming verses and captivating photos of Poems for Squares.

Review Quotes

"In this vibrant and inventive collection, Elyse Hart uses wit, wisdom, and soul to absorb the technicolor rainbows of seemingly disparate photos, invents new colors to repaint pictures, and creates new imagined lives beyond the camera lens. With these poems, Elyse takes square Instagram photos and extends them into new boundaries free of any borders."

-Rich Ferguson, editor of Beat Not Beat and Beat Poet Laureate of California (2020-2022)

Elyse Hart expanded ekphrastic poetry's possibilities with this charming book in conversation with the visual pleasures of 29 Instagrammers. As Elaine Scarry says, "Beauty brings copies of itself into being." Hart's vibrant poems envoice these parties, friendships, cats, landscapes, babies, guitars, desserts, vacays, tattoos, flowers, homes, and, of course, selfies. A witty companion to the joys of scrolling through the pics of friends and strangers.

-Camille Guthrie, author of DIAMONDS (BOA Editions)

"If you're an observationalist, like me, if you find yourself assessing the mundane details of every situation, like me, then, like me, Elyse Hart's collection Poems for Squares is for you. It's a collection of art speaking to art - poems drawn out of the images created by other artists (whether they realized they were making art or not.) As a person who rarely looks at a street sign, let alone a painting or photograph, without creating a whole world revolving around what filters into my eye, this collection especially resonates with me. For its humor, for the unintended worlds created out of the still lives of Instagramers, for the personas Elyse births - this volume complete with its ekphrastic partners reminds us there is no writer's block...open your eyes and look in any direction. There is your inspiration. (And don't worry, since the internet was the inspiration, there are just the right amount of cat photos to keep you going.)"

-Rick Lupert, author of God Wrestler and I Am Not Writing a Book of Poems in Hawaii