Kick the Poetry Can’ts #21
When I am teaching I often start off with an acrostic poem. We do easy ones that begin with the students names and allow them to tell me things about themselves. It’s a good ice breaker and it gets them familiar with the poetic form right off the bat. An acrostic is a poem that spells one word vertically and then uses the first letter on each line for a line in the poem. So if I were doing an acrostic ice breaker with my name, I might do something like this:
Sometimes a little bit scatterbrained
Usually reading or more books at a time
Stressed out when there is too much noise
Always wishing there were more hours in the day
Never going to stop believing in my dreams
Now that’s not much of a poem but you get the idea.
Here’s a draft of one I did tonight with the word “hummingbird. It’s not a great poem yet but it’s a nice way of getting my brain churning around on some ideas. And here’s another thing about acrostics, sometimes they are a good way to get a rough draft of a poem down and then you can take the phrases and play with them until you come up with a poem in another form that you like even better.
High off the ground(not really)
Under scraggly leaves
Mama knits a nest and
Mends it daily with garden gifts she
Ignores my visits (not really)
Needlenose beak tipped high in the air
Grand dame of the toyon tree with
Babies not yet born her
Iridescent feathers fan a
Rainbow blanket she
Decides I have seen enough for now.
Your turn.
Original art by Susan Taylor Brown
Always worried in fact I was born that way
Not happy with self image or self esteem
Never encouraged by family in any emdeavour
Eternally optimistic that things will turn around
- Anne McKenna
( Why could I not be called Anastasia-Mary or something equally as long so many more letters to play with)
Nice one, Anne. Hey, you could have used your full name if you wanted more letters.
Love the way you ended on an up!
MOTHERS DAY
Memories only you can give
Ordinary places made unique
Tears flowing without question
Helping with no words spoken
Endearing love for all
Reminiscing over the year
Surrendering to home comforts
Doing special things just for you
Allowing yourself to be pampered
You deserving of so much love
- Anne McKenna
Love this line, Anne:
Surrendering to home comforts
Ooh that is just a perfect image. You’ve been going great guns this month getting a tremendous amount of writing done. I’m proud of you.