Monday 1 April 2013

A is for ... ACRONYMIC POETRY

So today is the 1st of April, which must mean that it's the first day of the A to Z challenge.  I've decided to share my love of writing through this challenge, and hopefully introduce people to the world of Oulipo.  I first heard about Oulipo when I was at university, and I was fascinated by their approach to writing that I decided to delve deeper into the world of experimental writing.

In a nutshell, this group of writers likes to assign constraints to their work in order to push creative boundaries.  Not only is this fun to do (the process of writing something with a constraint really does open the mind), the results are brilliant.



*****

A is for ACRONYMIC POETRY
"Verse in which the letters of a given word furnish the initials of the words in each line." 
Oulipo Compendium ed. Harry Matthews & Alastiar Brotchie (London: Atlas Press, 2005) page 45.
*****

The first time I heard of this style of writing, I didn't know it had a 'name'.  I just thought it was really clever.  It was in Ian Brown's song 'FEAR'.  I'd been singing along for ages, and then I realised that the words in each sentence began with F, E, A, and R.


Not only is this a lovely song (in my opinion) it is also an acronymic poem.  So here's my attempt.

Write
While reluctantly I try, endlessly
worrying, reacting incredulously to everything,
we remember intricate things eventually.
Waste rectified, inevitably truth evades
worldly rituals, intricate tremblings envelop
wry reverberations.  Insight's timely escape
will resonate ideally, thoroughly eclectic
with realistic inventions.  Time ends,
walkers run, I trip.  Embers
write rhymes, invisible text ensues.

64 comments:

  1. Well done for A. I only heard of Acronymic poetry when I went to a poetry workshop a few years ago. I'll take a look at Oulipo as I've never heard of them. Good luck with the rest of the challenge.

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    1. Thank you. Oulipo are great (well I love them!). They developed a lot of writing constraints; many of which I'd never heard of until I started studying their practices.

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  2. This is great! Good luck with the A-Z Challenge! :0)

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  3. Thank you for your poem Rebeccah and for stopping by at my blog :)
    Looking forward to your posts this month!

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  4. Thank you for your poem, and for dropping by at my blog.
    Looking forward to reading your posts this month!

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  5. Thanks Rebeccah I get it now. Its wonderful I can see why you are so drawn to it. Can't wait to see whats in store for your B word.

    Came by from Tales of the Reborn Crafter http://talesofthereborncrafter.blogspot.com/

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  6. Good post and a new knowledge for me. All the best for the challenge. :)

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  7. Love it! I don't think I'd be very good at it, but I stink at just regular ole poetry, lol. Nice to meet you through the challenge!!! Looking forward to more posts :)

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    1. Thank you :) Don't put yourself down until you've tried it. It's not that difficult; it just gets the mind going. It's like brain exercises :)

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  8. A lady in my Writers group does a lot of experimental, but hasn't tried this one! Now I will have something to chat to her about on Saturday.
    Thanks for sharing and good luck with the challenge!

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    1. Thank you. *shameless self-promotion* - keep popping back to read the rest of my A-Z posts, then you'll have loads more to talk about at your writing group :D

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  9. Looking forward to learn about writing!...BET I will learn something!

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    1. Thank you. I hope my posts will be of some use, somewhere!

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  10. wow, that's awesome. I might have to give acronymic poetry a try, just to say I've done it. Good luck with the challenge!

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    1. Thank you, and yes, give it a try. It's certainly an interesting approach :)

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  11. I love that poem! Acronymic poetry is a new term for me. Thanks for sharing!

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  12. Great start to the a to z!

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  13. Lovely start to the AtoZ challenge, great literary technique!

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  14. Great A post! Really enjoyed your poem. Love the song too. I've followed your blog and will be back. :)

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  15. Great start to the A-Z Challenge

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  16. Rebeccah. I love this idea and the whole concept of your theme. I have to come back and learn some more. Great acronymic poem with the word write too. I love it! Thanks for the learning adventure. God bless, Maria from Delight Directed Living

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    1. Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. When I found out about the A-Z challenge, I knew this was the theme I had to go with :)

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  17. How fun, and what a great way to limber up the writing muscles. Enjoyed that very much.

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    1. Thank you. It's important to limber up in preparation for the more difficult exercises to come later in the month :)

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  18. Ooooookay, that is awesome. I honest wasn't sure what exactly to expect. That video and your poem are great! Can't wait to see what more you write throughout the challenge! I may even be tempted to try Acronymic poetry sometime.

    Have a great one :)

    Jak at The Cryton Chronicles & Dreams in the Shade of Ink

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    1. Thank you very much. With Oulipo, you'll never know what to expect. I've got loads more things up my sleeve this month.

      And yes, you should give it a go. It's fun :)

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  19. Hi! I'm returning your visit to my blog!

    This poetry style sounds interesting, something worth trying even!

    Marcie @ Marcie's Postbox

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    1. Thank you. Yes you should try it. It certainly gets the old brain cells working.

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  20. Nice take on this style! I had heard that some of the poetry in the Old Testament of the Bible is Acronymic when rendered in Hebrew, Great post, and thanks for the encouragement on my blog!

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    1. Thank you. I've heard that a lot of the Bible is written as poetry in Hebrew. It's a shame that I wouldn't be able to read it :(

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  21. Wow this is really cool, I'd never heard of that style of poetry before. Your poem was simply lovely and I can see how the letters from the word in each line can cause you to dig a little deeper for the piece. Happy to have discovered your blog during this a-z challenge!

    Randomness and Lunacy

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    1. Thank you so much for your comment. I'm glad you liked the poem :)

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  22. Great idea. Good luck with the rest of the challenge :)

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  23. Oh, THIS is fancy. This is phenomenal! I had never heard of Oulipo before - now I HAVE to see how this plays out! (It's a good thing I already bought my domain name, by the way, because otherwise I would snatch "Invisible Text Ensues" right out from under this very blog post. Terrific writing, ma'am!)

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    1. *doffs her cap* Thank you very much. I'm glad I've piqued your interest in Oulipo. I absolutely love it and use various constrains whenever I write.

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  24. I like this a lot. It sounds like fun, I will have to give it a shot.

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    1. Thank you. And yes, please give it a go. You can use any word or name, so the options are pretty much endless :)

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  25. What an awesome start to the Challenge. Loved the poem. Plus I learned what acronymic poetry is, and it looks fun.

    ~VR Barkowski

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  26. I'm not sure if I'm following the rules of this type of poetry from the example written; however, I might understand it if I could play the video. I don't have head phones and my family would freak if I played it when they are watching Revolution. Oh the problems of living together.

    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

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    1. Ha! Yes, I understand about living with family. I had to invest in headphones in order to listen to music on my computer. Basically, with this type of poem you choose a word (it can be anything you like) and you use the letters of the original word to make up the words contained in the poem. So with mine I chose 'write' -

      While Reluctantly I Try, Endlessly
      Worrying, Reacting Incredulously To Everything

      Look at the first letter of each word in each line - they spell 'write'.

      That's all you have to do.

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  27. Thanks for stopping by my blog today AND teaching me something new. My oldest son thought it was neat and is now considering attempting to write poetry.

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    1. Thank you. I hope your son enjoys writing poetry :)

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  28. Wow Rebeccah!

    That just... holy crow! That totally just blew my mind. The last time I encountered acronymic poetry it was in elementary school and the most advanced thing that came out of it was Cat for "cat attacks tree" or something like that. This is such a different league I can't even believe it's the same concept.

    Wow.
    Bev

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    1. At least you had a grasp of what it was when you were little. I only found out about it in the past few years! I don't think we even wrote poetry at primary school :/

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  29. Love your "A" entry! great work!

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  30. I love it! I love poetry. I'm just not that good at it.



    Cynthia (The Sock Zone)

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    1. Thank you. If you want to get better at it, all you have to do is practise. Writing is a craft and the more you do it, the easier it will become :)

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  31. I love it! I love poetry. I'm just not that good at it.



    Cynthia (The Sock Zone)

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  32. I love it! I love poetry. I'm just not that good at it.



    Cynthia (The Sock Zone)

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  33. Ooh! Interesting. This is the first time I've heard of this particular style. Definitely something to try out. Thanks for visiting my blog and good luck during the A to Z Challenge! :D

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    1. Thank you. Glad you like it. Good luck to you too :)

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  34. Love your theme for the A to Z challenge. I am still perusing all the websites and I will be visiting yours more often. Fun!

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    1. Thank you very much. I'm now going through the list to visit blogs I didn't have time to look at last month.

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  35. Hi Rebeccah, Thank you for introducing me to this type of poem, I find it fascinating. Tui, one of my dear friends, noticed your poetry during A to Z poetry in April and thought I would enjoy reading your poems. Unfortunately she lost your info and only now found it. I am glad that she did. I look forward to exploring your A to Z Poetry and seeing what other wonderful finds I will discover. Hope you decide to join us for OctPoWriMo.

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