If this painting by Frank Frazzetta depicts our future life on Mars, should not the image have a book of poetry in there somewhere?
Indeed it should…but the only way we will ensure our libraries of poetry books will make it through the great planetary migration will be for us to ensure poetry is relevant today. We must make sure these books make it into the United Van Lines space trucks and not on top of the earthly Goodwill piles.
The first thing we must do it to make sure all of earth's books of poetry are search-able and findable to purchase on the Internet.
Tag a book of poetry today! Tag your own books. Tag the books of your friends. Tag the books of your favorite poets.
How do you do this?
- Choose a book
- Make a list of all the topics the book's poems cover (marigolds, metro stations, experiences of immigration, oppression in Pakistan, drinking beer)
- Visit that books page on Amazon. Note: even if you hate the big bookseller, little mom-and-pop and used bookstores sell their books via Amazon too. Like it or not Amazon has become our repository for information about locating books.
- If you love the book, add a customer review that contains your subject words.
- Search for the section that says "Tag this Product" and click "Explore Product Tags." You might get an error page, but just hit your back button on your browser if that happens. The tagging section will expand.
- Check the check-boxes next to any existing tags you agree with and then add your own. You can add up to 15 tags per book.
- Don't tag books on the day you receive any rejection letters or bad reviews. Vengeful or obsene tags will be removed by Amazon.
If people can't find poetry, they won't buy poetry or read poetry. Tagging will help everyone find these oft-pass-over books! Tag a book or more a week!
