Craft & Play Vol. 44

the building blocks of a poem

Dear friends,

The year has begun, and our planners are full of hopes and dreams. We spread them before us as we walk into 2026 full of anticipation for all the words we will use this year. Will any new vocabulary slip into our lexicon? Will we branch out or stick with what we know?

Speaking of words… How about a poetic form that is built with a word as its mortar? For this week, we invite you to write an acrostic! This form is great because it is easy to begin, but is still enough of a constraint that creativity is prodded.

Photo by Yurii Serbin on Unsplash

Instructions:

1. Choose a word (or phrase, the world is your oyster). You can use the cootie catcher from last week if you need inspiration.

2. Each letter in the word you chose will start the lines of your poem.

3. For maximum interest, utilize enjambment in your lines so that ideas go across lines, making the acrostic function more subtle.

4. Once you’ve finished, format and revise however you like.

Here is our acrostic, using the word humidity:

Summer Acrostic

Heart filled to the brim with a funeral of 
Understanding—the heated exchange between pigeons,
Murmuring for manna by the park bench, where
I sit curled, covered in last winter's sweat. 
Do migrating birds ever long to rest their weary,
Interminably flapping wings? Sweat drips down
To my chin and there it waits for the plunge to 
Yellow, acrid ground. 

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May you all have a blessed weekend!

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