The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt publishing Scrabble-inspired poetry book, 101 Two-Letter Words

He’s already written 69 love songs, now The Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt is publishing a book of poetry using all 101 two-letter words permitted in a game of Scrabble.

101 Two-Letter Words will be released through W.W. Norton in October, featuring illustrations from New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast.

“My mother is a former English teacher who always expected me to write the Great American Novel, thunderous and profound, so she was not impressed to learn that my first book is going to be amusing light verse,” Merritt told The New York Times of his upcoming venture.

You can check out a sample poem from the collection beneath, via Pitchfork:

The country folk say “howdy-do”
but here in town, it’s “yo”;
they’ll say it in the country too
in twenty years or so.

Meanwhile, the singer’s own father has been planning on releasing an album covering his son’s tracks.