I remember writing acrostics a lot as a kid at school, but it's a form that can actually be quite cleverly done. Acrostics are, in their simplest form, a poem where the first letter of each line reads a known word top to bottom. My favourite example of this is a poem by Australian poet, Gwen Harwood, who wrote a beautiful poem about Abelard and Heloise, with an acrostic down the side spelling out a amusingly nasty secret message to the Bulletin newspaper.
Looking at the Wikipedia entry, it seems that acrostics don't need to be just the first letter, but can also be the first syllable or word. So, I thought maybe it would be fun to attempt an acrostic that is a little more than just the first letter. Enjoy!
the working person's lament
weakening cells in cells of cells and
ends of capillaries expand and
are breathing through
never-ending honeycombed pores
longing for respite in
enough air in air of air
Saturday, 2 February 2008
Daily Challenge: Acrostic
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5 comments:
Never tried one of these before. I have enough trouble writing poems when I have free reign. This was hard.
The Nature of Poetry
Please
dO not ask me to tell
thE truth. What's true is
thaT lies make more sense,
they'Re always there for you
and lYing is what words were made for:
POETRY is lying raised to an art form.
Nice! I like the way you've positioned the letters (which must have been much harder than having a letter at the start of the sentence). Glad to see you're having fun with these challenges!
I have just started a poetry blog, but have been writing it on and off for myself for years. I realy like some of the ideas on your page. Check out my blog see what you think.
http://thebraindrainpoet.blogspot.com/
Hi James,
I checked out your blog - it's interesting! I look forward to seeing some of your poetry contributed to this blog too :)
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