Sunday, March 23, 2008

123 Acrostic Poetry Meme


H-Acrostic 123 Poetry Meme

The H in H-Acrostic is from HARVESTED--meaning you start with harvested phrases.

I was tagged with this exceptionally fun meme by Mary. Here's how it works:

1)choose a book (mine is Tending the Earth Mending the Spirit)
2)go to Page 123, Look for the first interesting word or phrase:
"A healing vibration" (you can go on to the next page if
necessary)(Short words are quicker!)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
W X Y Z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26

For each letter of your word or phrase, add that letters number of
pages and count down that letter's number of lines and write down the
first interesting phrase BEGINNING with the LETTER. Continuing adding
pages, and if you get to end, continue from the beginning. Or just
open any page randomly. Do NOT use a poetry book.

  • A: 123+1=124pg- applied to many other aspects of our lives; accepted responses of plants
  • H: 124+8=132pg- humans need to accept that ripening and maturing are natural things; how to respond; hope for myself
  • E: 132+5=137pg- experience taught him; every spring reminds me that there is something about a garden
  • A: 137+1=138pg- appreciation of the miniature earths we create; alone to process; at least a few minutes
  • L: 138+12=160pg- look outside and see the outline of my garden, and I suddenly remember
  • I: 169pg- in sights, smells, sounds, and textures; intuitively, instead of categorizing and analyzing
  • N: 183pg- nature sanctuary for plants and animals; nourish me in this environment
  • G: 190pg- gave me great comfort to know the natural world would go on
  • V: 212pg- value of extinct species in the natural order of things; very sterile, artificial world
  • I: 221pg- I'm not some kind of earth goddess
  • B: 223pg- be wondering how any one person can make a difference; been unable to make a dent in the status quo
  • R: 2pg- rich and famous, impoverished and unknown
  • A: 3pg- are involved in creative pursuits
  • T:23pg- that with the process of letting go of those we love the most
  • I: 32pg- is something that a therapist and writer call communing with nature
  • O: 47pg- of what's so magical about a garden
  • N: 61pg- now giving something back to the natural world


(Yours of course will look different.)

Now comes the hard poetry part. Now that you have a start, you can change anything you want, look up new phrases. You can keep the acrostic form, but if you do, try to make it not be obvious. Or get rid of it. Revise and Edit till you have a poem. Feel free to take a week or two at least with this meme. Try to keep at least some part of the original words or phrases. Here's mine:

A Healing Vibration

Accepted aspects of plants are applied to my life.
How do I respond? I need to accept that ripening and maturing
are naturally arduous answers.
Experience has taught me hope, and every spring reminds me of
Appreciation. I am alone to process, and
Look outside to see
Intuitively, the sights, sounds, smells, and textures. I try to
Nourish myself in a natural sanctuary,
Give myself great comfort apart from a
Very sterile and artificial vanity, but
I'm no earth goddess. I've just
Been wondering how I make a difference,
been unable to affect the value,
been wanting to stop the bleeding.
Richly impoverished and famously unknown
Are all searching for creative pursuits.
The process of letting go of those we love
Is an art that calls for communing with the nature
Of a garden's magic, and is
Now giving that art back to my world.

4 comments:

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

WOW! This came out GREAT! Super Job! Nice topic and interpretation! YAY!

Sorry it took me to long to come back to this.

BB has had some days off and we've been spending time with family.

I see other interesting stuff here so I will have to come back for another visit.

Hope you had a great Easter. Nice work here! :-D

I like that part about wondering how I make a difference--I wonder that too sometimes.

bluerose said...

Thanks Mary! I really had fun with this. I didn't start out to, but "wondering how I make a difference" ended out being what the poem was about.

I spent Easter writing poetry. What could be better than that? Hope your family time was lots of fun!

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I have one small POSSIBLE suggestion,

Consider possibly deleting in the fourth line up "That which is so it just reads "The process of letting go of those we love"

It is quite wonderful just as it is!'

We had a great easter and a great 1-year b'day party for granddaughter Sophia.

bluerose said...

Great idea, Mary. I remember thinking that line was a little wordy, but never changed it. I guess it never occured to me that "the" works just as well as "that" in keeping the acrostic form. Duh. Thanks for the advice!

I've been out of town. I'll try to get caught up with your blogs tomorrow.

Yea, Sophia!