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.
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64 comments:

  1. Anonymous1 April 2013 at 08:51

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 09:28

      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. Sarah Williams1 April 2013 at 09:18

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

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  3. flexnib1 April 2013 at 10:10

    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. flexnib1 April 2013 at 10:11

    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. Unknown1 April 2013 at 10:14

    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. Unknown1 April 2013 at 10:19

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

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  7. Cassie Mae1 April 2013 at 11:53

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 14:54

      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. Maria1 April 2013 at 12:20

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 14:55

      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. Faith, Friends & Flip Flops1 April 2013 at 12:47

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

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    1. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 14:56

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

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  10. Jen1 April 2013 at 13:07

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 14:56

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

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  11. Unknown1 April 2013 at 14:55

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

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  12. Anonymous1 April 2013 at 15:40

    Great start to the a to z!

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  13. Sue Pope1 April 2013 at 16:12

    Lovely start to the AtoZ challenge, great literary technique!

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  14. Tracy Moore1 April 2013 at 16:51

    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. Melanie Crouse1 April 2013 at 17:48

    Great start to the A-Z Challenge

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  16. Unknown1 April 2013 at 17:53

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 18:23

      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. millvallison: mary allison tierney1 April 2013 at 18:48

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

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    1. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 19:20

      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. Jak1 April 2013 at 19:14

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 19:31

      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. Marcie1 April 2013 at 19:16

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow1 April 2013 at 19:32

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

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  20. Nicky1 April 2013 at 20:14

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow2 April 2013 at 08:08

      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. Jenn Flynn-Shon1 April 2013 at 20:30

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow2 April 2013 at 08:09

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

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  22. Anonymous1 April 2013 at 22:43

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

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  23. Tex1 April 2013 at 22:49

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow2 April 2013 at 08:12

      *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. Anonymous1 April 2013 at 23:37

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

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    1. Rebeccah Giltrow2 April 2013 at 08:13

      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. VR Barkowski2 April 2013 at 00:48

    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. Catch My Words2 April 2013 at 03:04

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow2 April 2013 at 08:16

      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.

      Delete
  27. NavyWifey2 April 2013 at 05:36

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow2 April 2013 at 08:16

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

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  28. Bevimus2 April 2013 at 14:03

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow2 April 2013 at 14:50

      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. Kristen2 April 2013 at 16:53

    Love your "A" entry! great work!

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  30. Anonymous2 April 2013 at 17:11

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



    Cynthia (The Sock Zone)

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    1. Rebeccah Giltrow3 April 2013 at 08:40

      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. Anonymous2 April 2013 at 17:11

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



    Cynthia (The Sock Zone)

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  32. Cynthia2 April 2013 at 17:11

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



    Cynthia (The Sock Zone)

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  33. Sarah3 April 2013 at 03:29

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow3 April 2013 at 08:40

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

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  34. Unknown2 May 2013 at 15:22

    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. Rebeccah Giltrow2 May 2013 at 17:13

      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. Morgan Dragonwillow30 September 2013 at 03:58

    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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