An Acrostic Trilogy during National Poetry Month

 

Poetic Day 29 of National Poetry Month:  April 29, 2019, Monday

 

On this eve of the final day of National Poetry Month, are you ready to try a different approach with your poetic creativity?  Take a simple, one-word acrostic; and by using the same stem word three times, turn the piece into a trilogy of poems which are somewhat thematically related and held together by the stem word of the acrostic.  For example, in the following poem, each of the three parts is an acrostic based on the word “humanity.”  Although each eight-line acrostic could stand alone as a poem, the three parts may also be interpreted as forming one poetic work–a trilogy.  By sight, magnification, or braille–you will read vertically down the left column of the page or screen the stem word “humanity” three times.

 

The length of a line of an acrostic poem may be only one word, a phrase, or a complete sentence.  When you are writing an acrostic, the line length and rhyming pattern or lack thereof are the choice of the poet; the only criterion of the acrostic form is that after the first line begins with a word whose initial letter is the first letter of the stem word, each subsequent line must begin with the next letter of the chosen stem word (as demonstrated below).

 

Beware!  This poetic endeavor for the poem-of-the-day, mostly written last October, may not be as quickly understood as all of my other poems.  Take a leap of poetic fancy, and try reading (an possibly explicating) the following trilogy.  Then, please consider the five writing prompts at the end of this WORDWALK post.  (Prompts three through five may also serve as a guide for reading this trilogy.)

 

 

Trilogy:  An Acrostic Trinity of Humanity

 

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

 

 

Part 1.  The Clockwork of Humanity

 

Hold on, hold on–

until

majestic

angels

nestle

into

teardrops and

yawns.

 

Part 2.  Acrostic Crossroads of Humanity

 

How can we

understand

microbursts

against

negativity

if

tenderness

yields to other choices?

 

Part 3.  Untangling Humanity

 

Hope

untangles

miracles–

addresses

nightfall,

icicles,

torn pages from

yearbooks.

 

* * *

 

WRITING PROMPTS FOR DAY 29 OF NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

 

1. Select a word to be used as the stem of an acrostic poem; use this stem word in three acrostics forming a trilogy of thematically-related acrostics.
2. Write a poem–in a form other than an acrostic–to explore the topic of humanity.
3. In the first part of the trilogy, angels come to someone through teardrops and yawns; write a poem in which you describe how and where you think angels enter a life or soul.
4. The second part of the trilogy poses a question about the crossroads of negativity and tenderness; write a poem about this “Crossroads of Understanding.”
5. In the third part of the trilogy, hope untangles the wonders and challenges of life; write a poem in which you reveal what you believe untangles the high points and low points of life or the blessings and “bumps-in-the-road” of life.

 

* * *

 

This WORDWALK post and my other posts of National Poetry Month are dedicated

in memory of Deon Patrick Lyons–

poet, novelist, blogger, and friend.

 

Wishing you a spring of poetic wonders,

Alice and Leader Dog Willow

 

April 29, 2019, Monday

 

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