SC25 - Day One - Book One (Button Poetry)
Also some bits of housekeeping around this Sealey Challenge stuff (all posts starting with "SC25")
Kicking off my 2025 Sealey Challenge today! I’m still feeling my way into how I want to post about it. I’ll probably figure out The Perfect Thing about…August 31st 😂.
If you don’t care about the Sealey Challenge (gasp), you can just ignore all my emails/posts starting with “SC25.” I’ll still be sending out writing news in the month of August (and there are some Big Things coming 👀), but without the “SC25” prepended.
Nothing like starting to get started, though!
Terms and Practices
Number of Pages — I’m counting from page 1 to the last numbered page on which the last poem ends.
Start Page — I’m already partway into some of the books on my list. I’m not starting them over.
Number of Poems — I’ll do my best here, but sometimes things are a bit wiggly. Mostly I’m counting them by looking at the table of contents.
Time to Read — I’m using a stopwatch (on my phone) and rounding up to the next minute.
Book links — I’m mostly linking to Bookshop.org, and I’m providing affiliate links (which don’t cost you anything extra but might in theory pay me at some point). If the book isn’t available at Bookshop, I do my best to provide a link to somewhere you can get the book. Amazon is a last resort, and I don’t have an affiliate account with them so those won’t be affiliate links. (Some lines are too far.) Also note that some of these books are out of print and possibly not available anywhere except a library or a friend.
How I’m choosing which book to read — I made a list of options, like so:
Ways to choose a poetry book (for Sealey Challenge)
Left to right (tallest to shortest) or right to left
Mood for the day
Number of pages (most to least, least to most, or alternating)
Middle outward, alternating left/right
Alphabetical order by title or by author
By cover color
Pseudo-random (just grabbing one)
Actually random (using a RNG)
I chose “pseudo-random” — slightly modified (for example, today’s choice was going to be a Button Poetry book because I happen to have a lot by them, and I want to spread them out over the month) — but I’m mostly going by vibes 🤷🏼♀️.
In the Beginning there were Words (but also, darkness)
The blank canvas I’m painting on:
Day One - August 1st - Book One (Button Poetry)
Number of Pages: 55
Start Page: 1
Number of Poems: 34
Time to Read: 29 minutes
The book is The Rent Eats First, by Eric Sirota. I lucked out; I hadn’t actually opened the book since I bought it, and I expected much denser pages than I found.
See you tomorrow for Day Two!