My Sun and My Stars

an exercise in acrostic poetry

Photo by dilara irem sancar on Unsplash

Photo by Chintya Akemi Keirayuki on Unsplash

Dear reader…

I have started my self-led (imposed?) MFA in Poetry. I am currently studying The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux as well as A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry (it’s not little) by Robert Hass.

My goal is to study and practice formal poetry. Some forms that I want to experiment with are:

Acrostic

Sestina

Cento

Villanele

Sonnet

I’m not reading the craft books in a linear fashion, but going straight to the forms that most appeal to me.

The first form I decided to write is the acrostic poem. They will continue to be a work in progress, but I also really like them how they are, too.

Nova and Leon are my grandchildren. When I practice tarot, my card for Nova is The Star and the card for Leon is The Sun. If you saw the card and the children side by side, you would understand.

Nova

Now that you are here
	I can tell you how
Once, I watched a bee
	Dance on a
Violet and for the first time 
	I knew
A tiny surprise is a miracle.



Leon

Little did I know
          Your peach-fuzz 
Ears and fussy toes
          would launch me into
Orbit upon your arrival,
	whispering a solid prayer:
Never a lifetime without you.