Teach-in (no Rhymes!!)

[UnderYourSpell]

Is anyone interested in an Acrostic Teach-in? I know the 'old hands' know how and they could help a lot. We could start with the humble Acrostic and move onto the Double Acrostic. There is no rhyming (unless you have masochistic tendencies) so it's all free verse

 

[butters]

Is anyone interested in an Acrostic Teach-in? I know the 'old hands' know how and they could help a lot. We could start with the humble Acrostic and move onto the Double Acrostic. There is no rhyming (unless you have masochistic tendencies) so it's all free verse

certainly i'm hoping some of the new names that entered and voted on the summer competition, as well as our newcomers already posting here, will join in the fun.

 

[Angeline]

I'll have a double.

 

[todski28]

I'm always keen to learn. Teach away!

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

I think the most helpful thing is to look at finished acrostics. Like many of the poetic forms, they're like puzzles.

During one of our earlier Same Title challenges we were given "FOAF" as the title. I'm embarrassed to say I had no idea what that is so over compensated with this.....

The Widower

For all his antisocial ways,
Of distances maintained,
A feeling of some separateness
From people he disdained
Felt fitting to him but he
Often he spoke out loud,
An effort to release himself
From this silent, thunderous cloud.

Friends and kin would shun him now
Old slights recalled anew.
All would condemn his self-defense
From pain they never knew.
Fresh strength grew from his loneliness
Obdurate and cold,
A shield from all the hurt and pain
For one old man to hold.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

For convenience sake here is Tzara's tutorial.

According to Turco, an Acrostic is "a poem whose initial letters of each line, when read down, give the letters of the alphabet (in which case it is called an abecedarius), a name, or a phrase, or some other word or grammatical construct."

Acrostics are often layered over other forms—a sonnet, for example. The example in The Book of Forms is an acrostic rondeau.

A number of poets here at Lit have written acrostic poems. If I remember correctly, both Angeline and Champie have written acrostics, even double acrostics (where the ending letters of the line also form a name, word, or phrase—usually reading upward).

Here's a very simple example:

Consider this sleeping animal:
A bolt of boneless fur
That purrs and dreams of mice.​

Another example, from Lit poet JUDO, is here.

A fine example of a double acrostic is this poem by Lit's talented Tristesse2.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

The only one of mine that I can find is a Double Acrostic and if you get that far my advice would be to avoid like the plague any words starting with I or U because unless you're into writing about Guru or Yeti finding words ending in those letters is a sod!

Take tiny stitches and you'll find
Hopefully that very soon an idea
Reveals an exquisite woven life,
Entirely created from blended colour
And through it all run enough
Daydreams to bring it all to light.

 

[Angeline]

Here's a hybrid of mine

Acrostic Cinquain

Let not
Our errant cries,
Vain moments in this night,
Erase tomorrow’s clarity.
Regret.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Acrostic Cinquain

Let not
Our errant cries,
Vain moments in this night,
Erase tomorrow’s clarity.
Regret.

Applause ........... this forum deffo needs a like button

 

[Angeline]

Applause ........... this forum deffo needs a like button

I know Tess has that great double acrostic I would love to see again (*hint*).

I have one more that is also an illustrated poem, but not sure where the illustrated copy is at the moment.

Here

Midcoast and the harbor
Yields nature blue gray
Mossed with foam, shell
And the cedars' singularity
Inches stubborn fingers.
No roadway horn or neon blink
Echo, but gulls and crows
Here where footprints neither
Own the rock nor keep the sand,
My face is lifted to a breeze
Entering the pines, bending me.

Annie? Post more of yours?

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

I know Tess has that great double acrostic I would love to see again (*hint*).

I have one more that is also an illustrated poem, but not sure where the illustrated copy is at the moment.

Here

Midcoast and the harbor
Yields nature blue gray
Mossed with foam, shell
And the cedars' singularity
Inches stubborn fingers.
No roadway horn or neon blink
Echo, but gulls and crows
Here where footprints neither
Own the rock nor keep the sand,
My face is lifted to a breeze
Entering the pines, bending me.

Annie? Post more of yours?

There's a link in the quote from Tzara's thread, think it should be posted here too?

 

[Angeline]

There's a link in the quote from Tzara's thread, think it should be posted here too?

Er...maybe just another link to it

Sorry I got carried away with the poetry. It happens.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

See Tess has just blown out of the water what I said about using the letter I

 

[todski28]

aside from using the individual letters for the start of each line are there any other specific rules or guidelines for this p[articular form? sorry about the delayed reply.

Obviously it is a general rule of thumb that the topic coinside with the acrostic to link the two.

By the way I very nearly voted for that poem, however there was something about Remecs that resounded with me. If I had of known what an acrostic was, or conversely seen the message there it probably would have tipped the scales.

 

[champagne1982]

V I R T U E

vague references of something you're supposed to guard,
infinitely valuable, if not to you, then to the one who
receives this precious bauble. A ruby, priced beyond wealth,
that will show value in its blood and heat, once
unwrapped from the cloak of innocence it wears;
enticing the ravager out from behind his disguise of propriety.

 

[todski28]

Desperate

Dragged cruelly through my minD
Escape, impossiblE
Struggling, pain like needles and pinS
Playing my emotions out of steP
Every timE
Rioting images reaR
Attacking a sensitive areA
Thoughts in a piT
Enduring the desperatE

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Desperate

Dragged cruelly through my minD
Escape, impossiblE
Struggling, pain like needles and pinS
Playing my emotions out of steP
Every timE
Rioting images reaR
Attacking a sensitive areA
Thoughts in a piT
Enduring the desperatE

I think you've made a good start but if you look at Champagnes above yours it has more of a flow, with a less staccato feel. It still needs to be poetic rather than a list of emotions.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

By the way I very nearly voted for that poem, however there was something about Remecs that resounded with me. If I had of known what an acrostic was, or conversely seen the message there it probably would have tipped the scales.

Thank you for that, I kept wondering if I should have put something into the title saying what it was in case nobody recognised it for what it was!

 

[todski28]

I was hoping the staccato actually gave the impression of desperation to the piece? I must have missed the mark, not to worry I will try again

 

[Remec]

Only one on hand

I wrote this one for the Survivor Challenge.

Limerick

There once were two men from Nome,
Who loved the wilderness to roam;
In foul weather or fair,
Neither combed his own hair;
Seems they left both their mirrors at home.

It's the only one (as noted above) I have around, so I will see about writing a new one for the Teach-In. Anyone feel like tossing out potential subjects or themes?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I was hoping the staccato actually gave the impression of desperation to the piece? I must have missed the mark, not to worry I will try again

The trouble with doing that is that thickos like me aren't going to see what is in your mind and a poem that is 'jumpy' and difficult to read doesn't always make the impression you want

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I wrote this one for the Survivor Challenge.

Limerick

There once were two men from Nome,
Who loved the wilderness to roam;
In foul weather or fair,
Neither combed his own hair;
Seems they left both their mirrors at home.

It's the only one (as noted above) I have around, so I will see about writing a new one for the Teach-In. Anyone feel like tossing out potential subjects or themes?

Aha you got there before me with another hybrid!

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I wrote this one for the Survivor Challenge.

Limerick

There once were two men from Nome,
Who loved the wilderness to roam;
In foul weather or fair,
Neither combed his own hair;
Seems they left both their mirrors at home.

It's the only one (as noted above) I have around, so I will see about writing a new one for the Teach-In. Anyone feel like tossing out potential subjects or themes?

Aha another that got there before me with a hybrid!

 

[Angeline]

aside from using the individual letters for the start of each line are there any other specific rules or guidelines for this p[articular form? sorry about the delayed reply.

Obviously it is a general rule of thumb that the topic coinside with the acrostic to link the two.

By the way I very nearly voted for that poem, however there was something about Remecs that resounded with me. If I had of known what an acrostic was, or conversely seen the message there it probably would have tipped the scales.

I'm going to start a discussion thread because there are many good poems that I want to revisit, especially the ones in the semi-finals. And we've done that before so people can give feedback about the poems.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Your task is to write an Acrostic of no less than 5 lines and no more than 8 lines on the subject of your Relations. I'll start you off and as I've only just sat here and written it, it may be rough round the edges.

Hardly out of short pants the way they behave
under a wife's close scrutiny, when daily
she asks for what should have already
been done in and about the house. I sigh
and once more put down my pen, resigned to
needless explanations of a film I didn't watch,
deliberately as it happens. John Wayne doesn't
send me into raptures, nor any of that genre.