The front page of Poets.org today features a poetic form called the Abecedarian. Since I obviously do not have enough fun in my life, I thought: well why not? It can’t be that difficult, right? Needless to say, I didn’t know what I was getting into.
An Abecedarian is an acrostic poem. In its strictest interpretation, the first letter of the first line of the poem begins with A, and each following line’s first letter is the next letter in the alphabet. No problem! Here are a few examples:
Mike Dockins: Dead Critics Society {scroll down to see the poem}
Laura Polley: Learning Your ABC’s
Robert Pinsky “ABC”
Notice how the first poem is a double-acrostic? And Pinsky’s poem uses each word’s first letter to go through the alphabet, rather than each line.
The poem spark this time is this: write an Abecedarian. Don’t worry about following the form too rigidly; it’s more fun to be creative. Good luck!
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I wrote this one a while ago.ErrorsI’ll likely write another one and post it in these comments.
zero for fourthis is mine.. in its simplest form.. but i had never tried one before so i started simple….
Carolyn Forche wrote a wonderful abecedarian entitled “On Earth.” You can find it in her book Blue Hour. I wrote an essay about it published in Pitkin Review. You can find it via http://web.goddard.edu/pitkin/2006_fall/fragments.htm, only if you’re interested. But I would definitely check out Forche’s “On Earth.”Thanks, Christine!
Hang on
Noah,Thank you for the link. I’m delighted to see that this particular spark has generated so much interest. I enjoyed both of your poems.Paisley,I like how the conversational tone drives your poem. :)Theresa,Thank you for mentioning Forche’s poem. I just bought “Blue Hour” last month when I went to see her read at AWP. She is wonderful to hear. When I begin reading her book, I may start with that poem. Thanks!