Acrostic Poems … and some prose
Published by Mike Miller at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Mike Miller
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover image created using http://www.wordle.net.
Contributed
acrostics, all used with permission:
Quilting Decisions Copyright
Debby Bulmer.
Genealogy Copyright Victoria L Taylor.
Infused
Imagery Copyright Steven Greene.
Photos/images
attribution:
Dandelions from www.clker.com.
Fifteen Puzzle
image created by the author.
Mona Lisa public domain from images
www.wpclipart.com/art/Paintings/
Silence Copyright Rick
Bertrand
Spatial Pattern 2 Copyright Amanda Tomasikiewicz
The
War of Art, Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative
Battles, Copyright Steven Pressman.
Together Forever image is a
"fair use" of the image, Copyright 2007, The Archaeological
Society SAP, in Mantua, Italy
Rooster Wake Up from
www.clker.com
Winter
Sentinel Copyright Patty Perry
www.clker.com is the online royalty free public domain clip art website.
Formatting justified text for eBooks is tricky. Last letter acrostics in the print version of this ebook are right justified. Right justification in an ebook is impossible when you consider the reader's opportunity to change font size.
The cover for the ebook is different from the cover on the printed book; the contents are very similar, the differences include the alphabetic reordering of most of the acrostics, and several minor changes to the text.
Table of Contents
A
Collection of Acrostics
A
Palette - A Work In Progress I
A
Palette - A Work In Progress II
Abecedary
As
Napoleon Said
Awake
- Aware
But
Is It Really?
Change
Concise
Dandelions
Dear
Writers Block I
Dear
Writers Block II
Decision
Making
Edmond
Locard
Equilibrium
Fifteen
Financial
Planning
Genealogy
Happy
Birthday
Happy
Thanksgiving
Hey
You, Over Here
How's
that again?
How
Do You Know What You Know?
I
Am Not My Body
I'm
Confused
Infused
Imagery
Innocence
Live
Your Biography
Misprint
Moderation
Mona
Lisa
Museum
of Appalachia
No
Fun Like Snow Fun
Now
It's Your Turn
Poets
Quilting
Decisions
Reindeer
Resistance
Responsibility
Risks
Rule
of Thirds
Sally
and Jim
Silence
Sir
Isaac
So,
How's your Mom, How's your Pop?
Stop,
Look, and Listen
Take
Only Memories
Talking
The
Juggler's Lament
The
Maze
The
Unexpected
The
War of Art
Third
Dimension
Together
Forever
Twenty-Foot
Ladder
Twenty-nine
Untold
Stories in the Shoeboxes I
Untold
Stories in the Shoeboxes II
Wake
Up
Watch
and Learn
Waterfall
What
Do You Mean By That?
What
is Art?
Where
are we going?
Who
Discovered the North Pole
Why
Do I…
Winter
Sentinel
Wonder
Wonderful
Bedlam
Write
On
Writing
and Reading
Yonder
the Future Beckons
You
Are Here
Functional
Acrostics
Write
Your Own
Curious
About the Uncurious
New
Year Resolutions
Duplicate
Bridge
Other
Acrostic Prompts
Evaluating
Your Acrostic
Acrostic
Words List
References
& Websites
Some
Definitions
About
the Author
Thanks
To…
_END_CONTENTS_
Acrostics are a challenging form of writing, a game of words, and fun to create and to read.
There are two basic types of acrostics, the puzzle variety, and the prose/poetry variety.
Acrostic puzzles look superficially like crossword puzzles, a formatted grid of white and black squares. The acrostic includes a set of clues with numbers to match cells in the grid. Answers to the clues are entered into numbered spaces, and then transferred into the grid according to the cell numbers. Acrostic puzzles are available in newspapers, word puzzle books and online. They are fun to create and fun to solve, but they are not the subject of this eBook.
This eBook guides you in creating prose/poetry acrostics. These acrostics are readable on two levels, the content itself, and the "acrostic" message. Acrostics are fun to create, and the "constraint" associated with creating sentences or phrases using a set of letters or words provides a challenge, but is far from an obstacle. At times this "constraint" is an enabler.
Prose/poetry acrostics come in two varieties: fun and functional.
Fun acrostics deal with information, feelings, and insights.
Functional acrostics deal with procedures and processes.
Unless otherwise indicated, acrostic in the rest of this ebook refers to the prose/poetry variety.
Here's an example - read down the first letters bolded of each line
The
sections and page numbers
Aid navigation through
Books, easing
scanning, reading,
Locating and citing references,
Explanations,
and examples.
Of course you can thumb through
For your
intended content.
Chapter titles help the
Organization, and
enable
Near hits, useful for
Targeting areas for
Exploration,
and for
New ideas
That's what research and
Study are all
about.
And another:
Creative
energies. Their fruits
Often risk being
Plagiarized, at times
undetected
Yet the author must protect them. A
Reality, not
always sinister.
Intellectual property
Generates insight, and
value, and
Holding control over it is
The essence of the
copyright.
These are simple functional acrostics: the first letter of each line is bolded, the message is read down.
Note how the down words aka acrostic messages are related to the content of each acrostic.
OK, now that you've seen a couple of acrostics, let's define some terms to help in exploring acrostics.
Letters or words or phrases can be combined to form the "hidden" message. To simplify, let's call these letters, words, or phrases the tokens.
These tokens form the acrostic message.
Each token is located in a grammatical construct, for example a line, phrase, sentence, paragraph, even chapter and larger groups. Let's call this construct the span. In the TABLE OF CONTENTS and COPYRIGHT examples above the span is a line.
The easiest for creating and for reading token placement is the first position in the span.
Acrostics in which there is one token per span are called single acrostics. In double acrostics, two tokens per span - the tokens need not be consecutive. And, triple acrostics, three, etc. Single acrostics are easier to create than double or triple.
The positions of the tokens may be anywhere in the span, although some consistency is required. The consistency can be simple for example, first position, third position, or less obvious for example, immediately following a comma.
The reader might be given a hint when the acrostic contains less obvious token patterns. The hint need not be specific, but might suggest the rule used in creating the acrostic.
Simple acrostics for example easily detected letter/word position are intended to be read and enjoyed. Complicated acrostics need to be read, then solved, then read again and enjoyed.
The reader should be able to understand the "story" without the even knowing that it's an acrostic. The acrostic nature is the frosting.
I've found that the reader of acrostics often tries to detect the message first. This is fine, but sometimes the reader doesn't even read the text. This is not so fine, since the real value of the acrostic is the combination of the two.
The creator "solves" the acrostic during the creative/writing stage. Like all writing, you should plan to revise your acrostic to improve its message and its delivery.
The Write Your Own chapter describes one process I use for writing acrostics, includes a number of original acrostics, and references to a number of acrostics available on the internet and in books.
My preference is to create a "pure" acrostic, one in which no significant message tokens are used in the acrostic.
Here is a simple acrostic, the span is each word, and the token is first letter of the word:
Any Challenge Requires Outside Study To Inform Completely.
Here, the token is the first letter of each line.
Challenge
Realities
of
Experience.
Allow
Thinking to
Invite
Valuable
Insights
To
challenge
Your understanding.
Challenge
what's written before your
Readers get their chances.
Invite
criticism, accept it, but
Temper it; it's your work, after
all,
Instead of making other's changes
Question why it was felt
to be
Unable to deliver its message,
Evaluate, evolve, improve.
There are other related word puzzles:
Cryptograms try to conceal a message, to communicate to those who can decode the cryptogram, but not to others. And solving cryptograms is more difficult than reading acrostics.
A mnemonic is a memory or learning aid. "Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered." - extracted from Wikipedia "mnemonic".
Roy G Biv is a mnemonic to help remember the colors of the spectrum the first letters of each color name: Red, Orange Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
"Acronyms … are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name." - extracted from Wikipedia "acronym".
Examples
of acronyms include:
scuba self-contained underwater breathing
apparatus
FAQ frequently asked questions
3M Minnesota Mining
and Manufacturing Company
IOU I owe you
FX effects
For more examples, use a search engine to find acrostics, acronyms, cryptograms, mnemonics: for example: google mnemonics mathematics, or acronyms electronics or other disciplines science, architecture, religion, etc. for more examples.
While we are on the subject of search engines:
Getting
answers
Opening
minds
Offering
information and images
Guiding
the users
Lending
information access
Enabling
research.
and
Your
Answers
to
How,
why
Offered
Online.
And finally
Because
It's
Not
Google.
Well, we are at a decision point - do you want to learn how to write your own, or do you want to read some original acrostics?
If you want to learn how, go to the Write Your Own chapter.
I tend to use obscure words at times, or so I'm told by my reviewers, so I included a short Definitions chapter later in this ebook.
Here are some original acrostics in a variety of styles, some with hints, first or last letter, first word, and embedded letters.
Challenges
abound
Obscure
topics in
Life
become real
Living
entities, needing
Exploration,
providing
Catharsis.
Time
hides opportunities
Inflicting
limitations
On
the thinker, but writing
Now
provides an outlet.
A Palette - A Work In Progress I
Any
subject, any style,
Paint,
a medium,
Artist,
the control.
Looking
deeply - to see, to grasp the
Essence
of the scene, using art
Techniques,
experimentation and exploration
To
establish the composition, the
Environment,
the vision, the message.
Art
is creative problem solving
With
self-identified goals, values, and judgment
Other
disciplines have external values
Realization
is judged by others
Knowing
the distinction can be helpful.
Insight
for its own sake, the artist creed
Nuance
achieved through color mixing
Primary
colors, secondaries, tertiaries
Red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, the grays
Organizing
knowledge through the painting
Getting
maximum value per stroke, overcoming
Resistance
of the blank canvas
Expecting
to revise, to refine. "Done, sign it"
Signifies
the artist's yielding to
Schedule.
A Palette - A Work In Progress II
Alphabet
to words to sentences to paragraphs
Pronouns,
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
All
integrate into poetry, fiction, nonfiction, essay
Leading
the writer, then the reader to
Exposing
preconceptions, exploring ideas
Title,
hook, dialog, dialect, point of view
Together
combine into
Expressions,
insight for the writer
And
the reader.
Write
what you know is the canon
Only
that may be limiting
Reading
is learning,
Know
what you write works too,
Inviting
new relationships
New
thought patterns
Pushing
through the comfort zone
Replacing
it through distress and eustress
Organizing
knowledge through writing
Getting
maximum value per word, overcoming
Resistance
of the blank page
Expecting
to revise, to refine. "Done, print it"
Signifies
the writer's yielding to
Schedule.
Authors Bring Creative Descriptions Emotion Feelings Genealogy History Information Judgment Knowledge Laughter Manipulation Nuance Organization Pleasure Questions Research Simplicity Transforming Unfinished Vulnerability Wonder Xanadu Yearning Zeal.
Yes, abecedary is a word. Try writing one of these, or an abecedary from Z to A, or using five words beginning with the same letter.
We
study the past, we want to know, we need to know
How,
what, where, when, why, who,
All
the facts we can find and articulate,
To
tell us about our pasts, to help guide our futures.
Important
investigation, with possible false
Starts,
but hopefully, integrity in conclusions.
Hypotheses
abound until the facts and factors surface
Insights
evolve, expand, disappear; all
Seeking
the goals of knowledge and understanding.
To
not repeat the past - that is the one
Overarching
challenge.
Reading,
research, pondering, listening,
Yearning
for a truth, the truth.
Baseless
opinions, distractions are offered to
Usurp
energy, not for progress, but
To
mislead, misguide, distort.
Answers
sought, but not always achieved.
First
things first - what are the essential questions?
Abstract
the hearsay, the opinions, the facts, the relevant.
Bias,
beliefs, agendas
Lean
toward misinformation, misguided thought.
Effects,
causes, correlations, post hoc ergo propter hoc.
And
why? Sometimes, to purposefully mislead.
Greed
is the unacknowledged basis, power, money, fame.
Respecting
constituents' wants.
Each
deed based on a "greater good", the
Expansion
of benefits, the redistribution of wealth.
Desires
overrule needs.
Unless
the research is conducted tabula rasa
Posturing
and pandering
Overwhelm
facts and relevancies
Negating
observed effects, causes, and correlations.
Inspired by a conversation about Napoleon, with Randal Dunlap, artist and Civil War buff.
This is a first and last letter per line acrostic.
Anyone
can achieve truth, all it takes is a
Willingness
to be enlightened, to see anew
All
there is, without condition, to embrace a
Knowledge
more profound than we ever
Envisioned,
considered, or desired before.
This is an essay about conformance of reports and written material to rules. Page by page, the report is intended to provide information, guidance, and not leave out important facts. Intentionally leaving out material may likely be an attempt to hide information, mislead the reader. Left page or right, could be either, could be both pages; what is the reader to infer? Blank pages could be purposeful, or could be as simple as the failure of the printing device.
This one is tricky. The first word of each sentence forms an acrostic frequently seen in technical and legal documents.
Time
and opportunities pass
Replaced
by wishes and hopes.
Expecting
others to step up and
Place
their names in the hat.
Instead
of sitting by waiting, you can
Do
the job, and take responsibility.
And
now, we are at that juncture.
The
group moves forward, new
Initiatives,
new leaders, new future.
Or
Not.
Attracts
Readers
Seeking
Insight
Metaphor
Observation
Nuance
Yumor*
*That's what poetic licenses are for.
from www.clker.com
Dry
wispy parachutes
Air-borne,
descending through the
Neighborhood,
creating yellow flowers
Delighting
the kids, bouquets for mom,
Expressing
Spring's arrival
Leaving
the snow behind
Inviting
flowers, trees,
Outdoor
living to invigorate.
Nothing
refreshes like a change of
Seasons.
…and another…
This is a last letter per line acrostic.
As
we look across the yard
And
see the budding flora
We
feel warmth of the sun
Shining
down, warming the ground
And
accelerating snow's demise,
Our
chores invite, and we honor all
Tasks
converting the garden from quasi
To
real, pruning, tilling, turning it into
A
sanctuary, a Garden of Eden
If
only for a few months