by Billy Mitchell

Created on: May 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 25, 2007

Acrostic poetry can be traced as far back as ancient Greece. It was a very popular method of form poetry and still is today. Acrostic poetry is very specific in its form and has a well defined structure.

The first letter or last letter of each line, when read in a descending or ascending order, spell out a word or phrase. For example:

Acrostic forming a word:

Love

An Acrostic: LOVE

L ife complete
O pen hearts beat
V alued above all
E ternal love's call

by: Billy W. Mitchell

An Acrostic forming a phase:

Morality
An acrostic: GOOD AND EVIL DOES NOT EXIST

G ood and evil does not exist
O nly socially acceptable morality
O wing that the human heart will persist
D redging the bottom with legality

A nswering questions with reasoned thought
N egating indecision with rationality
D elving into our subconscious minds

E xcavating the past to find no finality
V enerating the truth to define the axis
I nsisting upon good and evil rigidity
L ying to ourselves for the benefit' of mankind

D emeaning others as a source of superiority
O stracizing the minorities, keeping in check
E mpowering the social and moral' majority
S teamrolling opposing thoughts and beliefs to dust

N ever questioning in depth their morality
O pposition accepts their place in the world
T heir safe positions in a hostile society

E vil and good changing generation to generation
X enophobia heightened with violent sobriety
I nsisting we all believe in their lies
S itting on their thrones dictating legality
T hriving on prejudice, fear, and hate

by: Billy W. Mitchell

This method of form poetry can be very fun. It is great if the acrostic word relates in some way to the subject matter of the poem itself, but it does not have to. I have written dozens of acrostic poems and have come to love them. They are my favorite kind of poetry. If I have writer's block, the exercise of writing an acrostic poem actually can help me get past it.

I hope you try to write an acrostic poem once you finish reading this article, because they are a lot of fun to write and a joy to read.

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