Acrostic Poems

Sounds complicated, however, acrostic poems are quite simple. Just write your chosen word vertically down the page and use each letter as the start of each line. We chose a place, a person and a season to write about but it could be almost anything. It does help if it has some personal connection or meaning, and it's good to mix up how you are writing. Use single words, try sentences or try linking the whole poem into a story.



SUMMER

Streaks of fire colouring the sky
Underneath, grazed by fire
My skin blushes to point of bursting
Manic stinging running along the highways in my body
Electricity, coursing and teeming
Rejuvenating, replenishing, revitalising my spirit

- E. T.




BLUE SKIN BAY

Boddhisatva with
Love and
Unity, expressing
Equality and thought prayers of
Supplication.
Karma to be born as an
Indian or
New-born or
Born again. An
Avatar, child of
Yahweh.





MOLYNEAUX

Maori
Or
Later arrival.
Yearning for a
New
Environment.
Aotearoa.
United, free from
Xenophobia.




JESUS

Jehovah's
Earthly
Son.
Uniting people and saving
Souls.




TRUMP

Terrible person
Ruling the
United States with
Money and
Power.




SPRING

Summer soon.
Roses and
Insects cover
New
Ground.




CHILLI

Condiment
Hot
In the pot
Lavishes of
Liquid
Ignited on tongue.


- Phillip Porteous




GLASGOW

Going home to Dad
Leaving New Zealand behind
Always thinking of you
Sometimes I want to go there
Given your connections
Only wanting to know
Where do you come from Dad?




ANDY

Always love you
Now you're gone
Deeming me unacceptable
You're always in my heart.




VANESSA

Verbally gifted
Always look forward to your comments
Now and always
Even though
Sometimes it gets too much
Storyteller
And friend.

- M.F.




DR WHO

Destroyer of Daleks
Regenerated Recently
Watcher over Worlds
Hero - Helper
One & Only




WINTER

We're here in this cold yet dry false winter
waiting for snow and ice and rain

Idling thru our nights in front of heaters and fires

Nibbling on winter food, relishing soups, casseroles, baked potatoes and mulled wine

Turning thoughts to the garden, to what to plant for Spring food and Christmas fare

Eagerly watching the pointed green tips of daffodils
lancing through the soil to grab the sunlight

Resting on our laurels - I'll prune that later

- Kate Jenkins




KORORAREKA

Killing of a Korora
Organise some warriors
Return the broth back to me
Open it up to clean it
Rinse it in the waters of Russell
Add oil, salt, water and leaves
Rest it on my breast
Eat after the manner of the Jews
Kiss sweetly the lips
Ah "Ka reka te korora"




WINTER

Wool, hats and scarves
Inside by a warm fire
Natures natural remedies out
Taking hot baths and showers
Eating hot soup and takakau
Resting in a nice warm bed




JIMI HENDRIX

Jail birds loved him
Instant success
Millionaire extraordinaire
In a trance
Heroin addicts delight
Energising audiences worldwide
Nasty lyrics and rhthym
Dead of an overdose
Revered even in death
Immortalised
X-rated music

- Haki Davis of Ngati Manu, Copyright 2019






NEVIS

Nervously arriving in this country
Expecting challenges, and successes
Venturing into the wilderness
Into the frigid Central Otago Winters
Surviving, succeeding, and leaving a legacy behind.



SPRING

Six years old
Playing outside
Running under the sprinkler
Ice cream man visits
"None today" says Mum
Grrrr!! no fair.



SPRING

Seasonal changes
Potential of things to come
Rumblings of warmth
Increasing daylight
No heaters needed
Grass, bare feet, bliss!

- Christine Philp

Digging Foulden Maar

Today we went to the Dunedin Public Library to see a poetry and art display about Foulden Maar which has been in the news recently. The poetry is from a local writing group and we thought we would check out their work and use it and the concerns over Faulden Maar as the inspiration for our own creative writing. Here is a selection of the poems written in response.



WHAT THE PILLAGERS SAY

The pillagers say,
"We'll take some of that."
And pockmark the land
From it, oozing like pus
The stench of their greed
Dour and rank and slopping against the senses
Leaching into the soil, like blood spoiled.

The pillagers say,
"It is not enough."
So more they take away
the speckles coalesce, and suddenly!
The mess is everywhere
Beyond imagination
This disgracing
Plain in view for all to see.

The pillagers say,
"We will leave some behind."
A sliver no wider than the edge of my nail
As if that will bleach out their sin
But within
The stain never leaves.

The voiceless, entrenched for thousands of years, say,
"                                          "
And roll over, treated no more than livestock
But more than a collection of bedrock
No words to say
For the pillagers have stolen them all.

- E. T.




THE NATURE OF LIFE

Destroying the land of lakes and trees
are like destroying The Nature of Life
Seeing bones and fossils of creatures from the lake
laying on the ground all rotten and dull
Show people that what people did to lakes were no good
Like they had no sense or care of keeping lakes and lands so beautiful
When you see dead flowers and trees scattered on the ground
makes people wonder what did they care for in life
Cause seeing a photo or painting of a destroyed piece of land and sea from a long time ago
Shows us that some people cared more about destroying Nature and Life
Than caring for the world and people coming afterwards

- Julia Godfrey




AEONS BELOW

One cool and wriggling life,  fins alive, flex to drive
brown and blue in habitat tones of earth and water
mouth and gills gulp & flap and gulp & flap - air to live by
food for gulls and eels, each chasing smaller fry
washed down from streams between forest banks
into fine fresh water home.

Aeons below ancestors rest
laid down, still, as each age departs
soothed by fine silt, coatings of a volcanic past
in the life-lacking oxygen-free depths
Weight of millenia pressing down
life like a flower between the pages of a book
is compressed, encased, ordered

This cool and wriggling life
lies with its neighbours, whanui, contemporaries
a jot on the page of its history
extinct, or unfound in the catalogue of modern life

- Kate Jenkins




FOSSILS OF FOULDEN MAAR

In Middlemarch, we find a place called Foulden Marr,
size of a cylinder a km long.
Volcanoes erupted and made this place 23 million years ago.

Over time layers of ash fell and water soaked through trapping
fossils, leaves, fish, insects, fungi seeds, flowers, beetles,
berries and maybe other things.

People wanted to mine this area to make pig feed
from the diatom silt.
Why should we leave this place decimated?
23 million years to make and a few days to destroy.

We said No! leave this area alone.
There are still treasures unseen.

- Gail Palmer




BARREN

Landscape is barren with rocks of schist, tussock grass
dust roads, mountains, blue sky in the background,
peaceful and ancient Foulden Maar.

Fossils trapped there for millions of years preserved.
Miners want to mine it for pig feed.
Sure it would make jobs,
but it would also destroy the Maar and the landscape.

Got taken to court,
the people who opposed the bill won.
Foulden Maar, free for generations to come.

- Gail Palmer

HISTORY LESSONS

Archive of the past

Leaning into the future

Past lives catalogued

Within frail shapes

Fishing for a reaction

The reactionaries wish to make you food of swine

Cast your treasures into a pig sty

Memories crushed between the teeth of a pig

These beautiful shapes

Like butterflies of the earth

They tell their stories poignantly

Reminding us that we are dust.

- M.F.

FOSSILS OF FOULDEN MAAR

Folded like paper

The origami of history

Written on these pages

Are the signatures of evolution’s struggles

Species long gone

Pressed into the earth

A fight for survival

That extends before and behind us

History in rock

A lesson to be learned

- M.F.