A Murmuration of Starlings; Or, Acrostic Poetry You'll Actually Like

Good morning, Floodmark friends. Ready for some quick and easy writing inspiration? I'd been reminiscing recently about my last year of writing classes at my alma mater, and in a brilliant moment of word association (hint: yesterday's daily inspiration on Instagram) I remembered one of my favorite writing prompts.

Remember acrostic poetry? You know, in elementary school when you had to write your name vertically and come up with happy shining adjectives that totally described you? Yeah, I hated that too. BUT! There's good news: acrostic poetry can actually work quite well as a writing prompt.

In college, we were challenged to use acrostic poetry as a writing prompt, and admittedly, it was a worthwhile exercise. We wrote the phrase "Murmuration of Starlings" and had to start each line of the poem with a word that started with the appropriate letter; so, the first word had to start with "M," the second word with "U," and so on.

(Wondering what on earth a murmuration of starlings is? Check it.
Those photos would actually be a fantastic inspiration prompt, if you're about to go all TL;DR)

Normally, when it comes to challenging yourself, you're probably used to working within the rules of a form, either by means of a rhyme scheme or syllable count. But by using acrostic poetry to challenge yourself, you can essentially turn your writing on its head. (On its side? Whatever, you see what I mean.) The best part about writing acrostic poetry this way is that anyone who reads your poem won't likely realize it was an acrostic poem. The goal of this exercise isn't just to make a list of adjectives; you want to use the letters of your word or phrase to make lines.

The key to making acrostic poetry work as a writing prompt is to pick a word or phrase that doesn't suck. (For the record, I don't mean to say that your name sucks. It just probably doesn't inspire you as much as the various vocab words in your journal.) So, if you're ready, your prompt is as follows:

1. Use our phrase, "murmuration of starlings," as an acrostic poetry prompt. You must use words that start with the first letter on each line. Well, alright, we won't tell you that you have to, but it would kind of defeat the purpose if you didn't.

2. Pick another word or phrase that's been hanging around in your journal that you haven't used yet. Use it to create an acrostic poem.

For both prompts, if you really want to go the extra mile, use your word or phrase as the title of your final poem, and see which of your friends is clever enough to realize that your poem is actually a subtle acrostic work of art. Best of luck!

Like this prompt? Share the results with us by sending us an email, and you could be featured on this blog! Other options? Leave a comment below telling us your favorite poetry prompt from your college days. We've always got room for a little nostalgia.