Acrostic Only: About Acrostic Only

About Acrostic Only

Comments Off

INTRODUCTION:

Welcome to Acrostic Only. I am a lover of acrostic poetry and all its confinements, which allows me to be free. As such I have created this blog to share my take on acrostic and to learn from others.

Acrostic Only is about encouraging writers to prefect their individual artist abilities in writing acrostic. Our philosophy is practice makes perfect.

Acrostic is a poem or series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a name, motto, or message when read in sequence.1

Word History: An acrostic gives the reader two for one, and the etymology of the word emphasizes one of these two. Our word goes back to the Greek word akrostikhis, "acrostic," which is a combination of Greek akron, "head," and stikhos, "row, line of verse." Literally akrostikhis means "the line at the head," emphasizing the fact that an acrostic has in addition to horizontal rows a vertical row formed of the letters at the "head" or start of each line. In ancient manuscripts, in which a line of verse did not necessarily correspond to a line of text, an acrostic would have looked particularly striking, with each of its lines standing by itself and beginning with a capital letter. Our word for this type of composition is first found in English in the 16th century.1

1 - Excerpted from American Heritage Talking Dictionary.

The greatness of an Acrostic lies in its simplicity. An Acrostic’s beauty is arrayed in very few words. To master this style, one must keep the clutter out, while creatively expressing the prompt. Acrostic, like any other style of poetry, is not for everyone, oh but it’s so much fun!

On the flip side of this coin, one must always keep in mind, to master another style of writing is fun, but to make it your own, by creatively injecting it with your innovative skills of expression, is better. This is how new styles are created and mimic.

ACROSTIC ONLY WORKSHOP:

There is no wrong or right way to write an acrostic poem, with the exception of a few basic rules:

capitalized and/or bold the first letters
do not break the word up into syllables
keep to the subject throughout your acrostic
use few words to convey your message
be creative ...

Keeping these basic rules in mind, one can do just about anything with it as long as you stick to the subject of the Acrostic; from free styling, syllables counts, rhyming, or a combination of them all. But in doing so, you must remember to follow the rules of the acrostic as it relates to line count and subject matter. Also be creative.

If you care to join the workshop on basic acrostic writing, just for practice, email me and I will add you as a member so that you may read what has already been discussed. If you have new questions, or would like for one of your poem to be critique, just post it. Critiques are done when I have the time.

PROMPTS:

This is a monthly Meme which consist of 12 Prompts. Six regular prompts, and six innovative acrostic prompts. It's writer's choice, chose one, or all. But you are limited to one poem per prompt.

If you are SERIOUS about your writing, these are the prompts for you. Carefully follow instructions on each prompt, always keeping in mind the basic elements of what makes an acrostic.

The trick to writing a good acrostic is to do a little research on the subject, even if it's just looking the word up in the dictionary, then creatively making it yours. Remember, you have 30 days to do these prompts, which gives you time to really get off into your art. So, be creative, be active, but most of all have fun.

There will be only four awards issued a month. One award and one honorable mentioned for "Best Acrostic Poem" and one award and one honorable mentioned for "Best Innovative Acrostic".

Don't forget to click on the other links and enjoy the wonderful acrostics written by all participants! Thank you for joining the fun!

SUBMITTING YOUR POEM / SHORT STORY:

It’s easy to participate and submit your poem to Acrostic Only.

Once you have decided to participate, you must write the poem on your own blog, following instructions for the prompt chosen.
At the top or bottom of the post, you must put a link to Acrostic Only.
When you have completed your poem, you must link it at the Prompt Hub on Acrostic Only Blog.
You are allowed to submit as many poems as you desire per prompt. But remember, it’s quality that we are looking for, more so than quantity.

HOW YOUR POEMS / SHORT STORIES ARE JUDGED:

Because we practice fairness in all that we attempt to do here at Acrostic Only, your poems and/or Short Stories are judge as follows:

Following Prompt Instructions
Creativity
Rhyming & Free Styling
Unique take on Prompt (Originality)
Quality of Poem or Short Story

Special Note: If you have your blog pages set to protection mode, if you win, we will request that you email your poem to us at acrosticonly@gmail.com. It is time consuming to copy the page as a photo and then type the poem in Microsoft Word.

AWARDS:
(Awards and Prizes are subject to change by administration without notice.)

Monthly Awards: - Only four (6) awards will be issued.

Regular Acrostics: Best Acrostic Poem Award (BAP) – Two (2) awards will be issued. One for Best Acrostic Poem of the Month, and the other, Honorable Mention.
Innovative Acrostics: Best Innovative Acrostic Award (BIA) - Two (2) awards issued; one for Best Innovative Acrostic for the Month, and the other Honorable Mention.)
Acrostic Short Story: Best Short Story (BSS) - Two (2) awards issued; one for Best Acrostic Short Story for the Month, and the other Honorable Mention.)

Poet of the Year Award (POY) – One (1) award issued for Poet Of The Year. For details on POY, click HERE.

Winners of all wards can be found on Acrostic Contest Winners Blog.

ACROSTIC ONLY JUDGES:

All judges are volunteers. Acrostic Only is always looking for good Judges, so if you have the time and the desire to encourage our writers, please apply HERE. You do not have to have a degree in anything, just a love of poetry and reading, plus an understanding of Acrostic Only’s technical aspects of judging others art for awards issued by us.