We've all seen them. Some, perhaps, have even been them: those dreaded shoppers using their local bookstore as a showroom to browse books before buying them on Amazon. 

Most people wait til they get home (or at least step out onto the sidewalk) to finish showrooming, but on a recent trip to Chop Suey Books, I bumped into the same woman in each nook of the store, her smartphone shamelessly open to her Amazon list. She'd select a small stack of books, thumb through them, touch her screen, and move on. Nothing stealth about it. But she did avoid making eye contact with anyone - guilt, I'd like to hope, something she couldn't click away.

This year, resolve to REVERSE the showroom process - starting with books. 

Browse for the books you want online, then buy them from a local bookstore. You know, those quirky, essential places that support writers and whose "staff picks" lead to book discoveries beyond bestsellers and NPR picks. Better yet, PRE-order books from indie stores; pre-orders are one of the best ways to support the poets and writers you love.  Don't have a local bookstore? Place your order with Indiebound or a similar site.

Eager to get started? Here are two poetry books to preorder now - both full of memorable, beautifully crafted poems that will stay with you long after your turn the last page:

• Take Me With You, Wherever You're Going by Jessica Jacobs
• These Many Rooms by Laure-Anne Bosselaar

For an extra bit of affirmation, you could COMPLETELY reverse the typical showroom process.  Make yourself an Amazon Wishlist for books, but give the list a name that reminds you of your commitment to buy local.  Mine is called "Buy Books from Indies." What will you call yours?  And why stop with books . . . 

Taking cues from ekphrastic poems that respond to personal or public photographs, or to online videos, poems like the following...

Children Walk on Chairs to Cross a Flooded Schoolyard - Patrick Rosal
The 8th of May: A Vow Made for the 7th of May - Daniel Nathan Terry
Old Photographs - Gabeda Baderoon

...or like these which respond to the same famous photograph...
War Photograph - Kate Daniels
The Uncropped Photograph--Nick Ut's Vietnam, June 8, 1972 - Gary Dop

...browse your favorite archive for an image to use as a spark.  

Perhaps an image in one of these online archives might intrigue you:
American Memory: Photograph Collections - LoC
​Calisphere - U of California
LIFE Photo Archive - Google
National Archives Photo Collections
National Museum of African American History and Culture
New York Digital Library: Photography Collections - NYPL
Virginia Memory - LVA

And if that makes you hungry for more art to engage with, check out Rattle's monthly ekphrastic challenge.

In honor of the victims killed at Pulse, writers David Lopez and Luis Lopez-Maldonado created The Brillantina Project because, in their words, "Amidst the darkness we seek the light and hope our words will heal…even if it’s only for the moment."  I'm honored that they accepted two of my poems for inclusion, publishing "Weeks before the First Anniversary of Marriage Equality" this past Tuesday.

Similarly, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, published a special issue this month entitled Pulsamos: LGBTQ Poets Respond to the Pulse Nightclub Shooting.

Check out both of these special projects! 

For anyone who shares my interest in documentary poetry, I especially recommend Li Yun Alvarado's "Pulse Puertorriqueño: An Elegy in Collage" on The Brillantina Project for both its form and its emotional impact.