Acrostic Poem Challenge -- You up to it?

[Rieping]

Recently someone challenged me to write an acrostic poem about what poetry meant to me. As you know, each line of an acrostic poem begins with a letter from the word that the poem is about. Here is the example of my acrostic poem:

WHAT POETRY MEANS TO ME
an acrostic poem

Put aside the robes of solitude now
Or open views long shut inside your thoughts,
Extravagant like elephants, to bow
Too before lights that shine, so many lights,
Round about you. These gifts you know so well
You call them kin, if not of flesh... then heart.

+ By John Rieping on Wednesday night, December 13th, A.D. 2006

So... who here is up to the challenge? Share with us what poetry means to you in an acrostic poem!

[katycarl]

I'll bite with a first draft:

------------------------

Pull the thought from corners where it hides,
Or out of dusty cupboards where you shut
Each thing you cannot say yet. Tell me, what
Treasure can make us richer, trapped inside
Rich word-hoards never opened? Now unlock
Your own God-given wealth: with truth to shock.

[Rieping]

I hope you don't mind a brief reply, but that was excellent Katy.

[katycarl]

Thanks!

[pierregambotsky]

Yes, lovely poem katy! I'm normally not big on acrostics, but that was rather special. Don't get me wrong Rieping, I really like your poem too, but you can't blame me for loving her poem!

Maybe I'll give it a try myself in a day or two, though I doubt it will measure up with any of yours as I'm not much of a poet...

[antonio449]

Por detrás de la puerta

Osastes entrar

En el desván de la memoria

Sirviéndote de las mañas del demonio

In flagrante fueras a buscar los escondrijos,

A sabiendas, del alma mía.


Behind the door

You dared to go

Into memory’s attic

Using all the Devil’s tricks

Flagrantly you went to search out

My soul’s hiding places

And knew it all along.

[katycarl]

antonio, how very Pablo Neruda-ish, with the Spanish and the doors of memory and the Devil's tricks. And what an effective closer... "knew it all along"! I like.

pierre, thanks for the kind words. I'd love to see what you cook up.

[raindear]

A pathetic attempt, but I offer it nonetheless:

Ponder in a different light
Or through a more mystical sight
Eternal truths exalted
To fill the great and vaulted
Recesses of the human mind
Yearning for God.

[Rieping]

A very high-minded poem, Raindear! And an intriguingly evocative one, Antonio! Thanks for sharing!

[job]

I realize I'm coming into this exercise late, but I couldn't pass it up.

Acrostics are my weak spot.

Here goes:

Parnasussus’ Chalice

Parnassus’ chalice fills with great once in a whiles,
Or waits in grammar’s lounge for casually ordered adverbs,
Exotic, fruity adjectives, or nouns straight up…
The meaning exceeds the proof, brimming with style’s
Red meniscus – when a word’s pressure disturbs
Your surface – that’s when you’re ready to take a cup.

JOB

[job]

Of course, it's too late to take it back, but the title should read:

Parnassus' Chalice

Sigh.

JOB

[katycarl]

I love it!

(And, p.s., you can totally edit posts. Up at the top of each one there should be a bar that says "quote," "modify" and "delete." Hit "modify" and you get an editing pane again. Just for future reference.)

[ananemyss]

Can I join? How's this?

Pens dancing on pad spin early key marks,
Opening the mind's locked backstage door.
Extract experience, vicarious or real
Tango words, costumed in allegory;
Rehearse to death and strengthen in depth
Your message, your shout, to all creation!