Finding a title poem for your book title

For some poets and writers, titles come easily, often bringing us our first clue about the lines of a new poem or contents of a new book. For others, thinking of titles adds stress, but that can be a good thing if you’re stressing a main point or theme.

As you collect your poems for a book or chapbook, begin by selecting a central theme or focus.

That job will be easier if you type each poem on a separate page with a key word at the top. You can then do a word search in your computer file to assist you in gathering poems relevant to a particular theme.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, “10 Tips on Titles for a poem or poetry book,” my first experience with this began by searching for “Nature” poems in my Word file, gathering poems with that emphasis, and entitling the book Living in the Nature Poem.

I’m very happy with that title, but since that book’s publication by the environmentally-minded Hiraeth Press in 2012, I’ve looked for poems with interesting titles or lines that speak for the whole book.

The title of a key poem can provide the ideal book title.

This works especially well if your choice summarizes or symbolizes the contents of your book and/or gives your readers an entrance into your theme, purpose, and poetry.

For example, my next book of poems published by Kelsay Books, Aldrich Press, in 2014, came about as I searched my files for poems with some reference to the “Bible.” That collection included “Lot’s Wife Visits Genesis 19,” “Having a Word with Judah,” “Manager Scene,” “Message to Mary,” “Re: Deemed,” and others based on recognizable Bible stories. However, none of those poems spoke for the whole book. So I turned back to the beginning of time and wrote "Outside Eden,” which became the book's title poem, starting with these lines:

“Away from the flaming torches,
everything grows dark.

Does God
never
want me near?”

Those words could express the dilemma we all have, living, as we do, outside Eden. Since it seems to me the entire Bible brings us God’s Word that, yes, God wants us near, the poem said what the entire book aims to show and, perhaps, build faith and relationship in the process.

The poem “Faces in a Crowd” provided the title for my next book, which I decided to self-publish in 2016. For years I’ve been drawing faces, portraying people in fiction, and observing people in poems – not to call anyone out, but to give a glimpse of those unlike ourselves while showing how much alike we are, despite our differences. With so much to divide us, I believe that merely taking time to find out where someone else is coming from can be enough to spark empathy for one another. For instance:

Faces in a Crowd

Why trouble yourself with tea leaves
or try to discern the lines in a palm
when you can read faces?

See how the dark centers
of her eyes light up only
as she looks at a child?
And watch her cornered
mouth turn down
even as she laughs.

Hard times cannot be hidden
beneath the cut of hair
nor foundations concealed
with makeup meant to attract
a man, but then
consider him:

Can you see
that forlorn little boy, alone,
waiting to be remembered
inside the grown man,
caught now
in clouds of anger?

After gathering poems I’d labeled over the years as “People,” “Social Comment,” or “Relationships” for the book Faces in a Crowd, I felt urged to do something foreign to me: praise! So, for the next year, each day began with a phrase or sentence that led into a praise poem, which I subsequently published on my blog by that name.

When that flow of poems suddenly ceased, I realized I had a book that Cladach Publishing might like, so I sent the manuscript to them, and in March 2017, editor-publisher Catherine Lawton released PRAISE! Each poem in the book reflects that title, but this poem summarizes:

Praise God our Praise –

Without Whom
there is none:

no cause for joy,
no source of love,
no hope of peace.

Praise God Who dwells
in us and around us –
enthroned on our praises –
uplifting our days.

Since I began writing as a child, my Word file now gives me many hundreds of poems from which to choose. Yet those poems seem to gravitate toward my favorite subjects – i.e., Bible, prayer, people, and nature. If you’ve also been drawn to writing about your favs, the number of poems you have on a single theme or topic can help you decide whether to do a chapbook of about 20 to 24 poems or a book of about 75 pages.

I felt certain I’d have enough “Faith” poems for another book, and I did, but then I couldn’t find The poem that spoke for the whole collection. I wanted readers to know these would not be “greeting card” poems or fluff but would deal honestly with struggles between faith and doubt. And so, for this latest poetry book, Lost in Faith, I wrote the title poem after the fact in an effort to summarize and to give readers an idea of what to expect:

Lost in Faith

Abandoned
by You, Lord?
Never!

Abandonment
by me….
Yes!

I throw myself
on your mercy.

That’s the last of the poetry books planned for now, but recently a writer friend encouraged me to reissue an inspirational romance novel set in Florida in 1895, which Zondervan published over three decades ago. Hopefully, time, writing experience, and the computer ease of revising a manuscript helped me to tweak the book, while retaining the original characters, story line, and title.

Although this latest release is fiction, rather than a book of poetry, the title comes from the closing lines of a song (aka poem) that the main character “writes” throughout the book, Hand Me Down the Dawn.

Whether you’re writing a book of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, keep searching for a poetic title or a title poem that encompasses your contents, sets a mood, and invites readers to see for themselves that this book is for them.




Lost in Faith



PRAISE!



Faces in a Crowd



Outside Eden



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10 Tips on Titles for a poem or poetry book

Reading a poem or poetry book starts with the title, which can add interest and dimension to all that follows. For wonderful examples, study the titles of poems by the late Wallace Stevens – recipient of the Pulitzer, Bollingen, and National Book Award prizes in poetry.

Also, consider these tips:

• Use the title of a poem as the extra space of an added line, which doesn’t repeat any other line within the poem – unless you’re effectively using repetition for artistic effect.

• Play with symbols, phrases, and yes, clichés that relate to your poem. For example, the cliché “s/he’s a brain case” became the jumping off point for a poem I wrote to describe physical, mental, and mysterious aspects of the brain. The resulting poem, “Brain Case: In Forty-Eight Fluid Ounces,” first appeared in the medical journal Chest with “origami-folded wedges of memory” (physical description) and “forty-eight oz. of wizards” (mystery shown in word-play of ounces to play on wizard of Oz) and (mental) in the lines “She won’t open the case by herself,/ so you might as well give her the truth.”

• Use titles to catch a reader’s attention while staying true to the content. The recent fad of making shocking statements in titles for manuscripts that say just the opposite are misleading, not to mention annoying! For instance, my title “The Middle-Aged Mother Goes Up, Up, Up in Iambic Pentameter with Champagne After” sets the stage for a rhythmic (yeah, iambic pentameter) poem about my totally terrifying then uplifting (pun intended) experience of riding in a hot air balloon.

• Let each title give your readers something to hold onto as they enter a poem. To show you what I mean, the title of this poem readily identifies the “who.” Otherwise, readers must guess and will feel smart, dumb, or ____. Want to play?

The music breaks
crystal.
Shards
strike the page
with spikes and slivers.

Vermont maples
explode
red and gold
with no syrup
to make the fragments stick.

A dark stare
from a paper-white face
peers
at that bruise beneath
your left rib.

by Mary Harwell Sayler, © 2016, from book Faces in a Crowd

If you've read the works of classical American poets, you’ve already guessed what the title makes plain “Emily Dickinson Dips Ink.”

• One mundane reason that titles are important is that they help you keep track of each poem's whereabouts. For example, I have a Word file called “Poetry Submission List" with titles in alphabetical order. When I submit a poem (usually 3 to 5 in a batch) to a potential publisher of a journal or e-zine, I note the place and date that piece was sent off for consideration. Since the file is now many pages long (I’ve been doing this a while), I needed a way to find which poems are still available, so I type an * before titles that have placed and + in front of those presently being considered. The remaining titles are ready to revise or try elsewhere.

• When poems have placed, I list the titles (again, alphabetically) in my “Bio” file with the name of the publisher and the date of publication. The titles also help me to find the actual poems by searching my “Poetry” Word file, so I can copy/ paste the poems in a new book grouped around a particular theme. Since I note the topic – “faith,” “Bible,” “nature,” “children’s poem,” etc. – at the top of each poem in the “Poetry” file, I can search for those key subjects to see if I have enough poems for a book. For instance, my “nature” poems went in my book, Living in the Nature Poem, published by Hiraeth Press, and my “Bible” poems went in Outside Eden, published by Kelsey Books. “Nature” and “children’s poems” came together in Beach Songs & Wood Chimes, also published by Kelsey Books. My newest book, Faces in a Crowd, resulted from a search of “people” and poems on “relationships.”

• In writing for children, I like titles to hint at humor or the light-heartedness kids enjoy such as “Jelly Fishing” (about a jelly fish), “Questions for a Spider,” and “Conversation with a Sand Crab.” The book title included “Wood Chimes” to let potential readers know the poems would help children to experience beach scenes and woodsy surroundings of interest.

• A single word or tag can provide a workable title too. For instance, “Bugged” is not only about being annoyed but that the cockroach I’d reluctantly killed wouldn’t stay dead! A totally different tone occurred with the poem “Wait!” which invites readers to wait for God to respond, so the Lord “holds you closely/ and teaches you to speak/ to pray.”

• Titles can also hint at a scene or story without giving away the full situation or plot. For instance, the title poem for my book Outside Eden lets us know we all live outside the Garden, and many of us keep trying to find our way back inside. The title Living in the Nature Poem hopefully lets readers know to expect poems in a natural setting, written by a nature-lover who’s had to get used to some aspects of the natural world. And, hopefully, the title Faces in a Crowd helps readers decide if they want to read my take on people. In case you do, I’ll enclose an ad to click.

• If any of the above tips interest you, but you don’t quite know how to go about it, here’s my biggest tip: Give your poems the time they deserve. They might have to sit awhile, but with enough time and attention, something fresh and unique will eventually come to you.

by Mary Harwell Sayler, © 2016

Faces in a Crowd, paperback



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