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Bob Raczka on Wet Cement

by Sarah Ellis
Apr 12, 2016 | Filed in Authors & Illustrators
raczka_wet cementIn our May/June 2016 issue, reviewer Sarah Ellis asked Bob Raczka about poetry in unconventional places. Read the starred review of Wet Cement: A Mix of Concrete Poems.

Sarah Ellis: Have you ever, yourself, written in wet cement or indulged in any other sneaky poetry?

Bob Raczka: Sneaky poetry? Hmmm. In my day job as an advertising copywriter (think Mad Men), I have snuck some poetry into my ads. A few years ago, I wrote three rhyming outdoor posters for an Illinois Lottery scratch-and-win game, with each line appearing to be “scratched off;" here is one:

Sammy scratches
in the tub.
His technique?
The rub-a-dub.


From the May/June 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

Sarah Ellis
Sarah Ellis is a Vancouver-based writer and critic, recently retired from the faculty of The Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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