by Kat Apf

Created on: August 30, 2007

My fourth grade teacher introduced me to acrostics. The first letter of each line spells out a word or words. Our assignment was to write one using our name. I remember I was resentful. I have a long name!

I have trouble taking acrostics seriously. I think this is because most of them are written in a very choppy manner. As with any form, if the form overwhelms the words, it doesn't come across quite right. It's not as easy as it looks. In theory, I'm sure most poets understand what needs to be done, to put it to practice is another thing.

I won a hundred dollars with the following poem. I'd like to think this flows and it isn't easy to detect the acrostic in the words. That's what one of the judges in the contest said, anyway.

Large gray masses loom
Over the house today.
Nobody's here but me.
Every time I feel like this
Liquid moments of
Yesterday's people flow

Down my cheeks.
Artifacts of the past
Yank at my thoughts-
Savored, sadly yet sweetly.

Sometimes, it's easier to forget the form and concentrate on the images and the mini-story you are trying to get through in a poem. Writing in form is, for me anyway, constricting. A lot of the time it's easier get across your story without being restricted by a form.

Although, if I am having trouble with a poem I'm writing in Free Verse, I'll force it into a form. I almost never leave it in the form but it will make me come up with some good lines I can work into the Free Verse poem.

The trick to getting it right is to make each line flow into the other one. You want your reader to realize, after reading your poem a few times, that it's an acrostic. You don't want to bash them in the head with it. I believe this is true of any form. You don't want the reader to think, "Hey, I'm reading an acrostic!" You want them to concentrate on what you're trying to say.

Acrostics are good practice poems. If you are having a bout of dreaded Writer's Block, trying your hand at acrostics will, at least, get you writing. Haiku are good for getting over dry periods, too. There isn't, as far as I know, a market for acrostics but if writing them can help you overcome a slump, then they are good for something.

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