about these poems
Years ago as I began to constrain my early free verse poetry, I was introduced to the Acrostic. I had already found by constraining lines to a fixed meter an ability to broaden a poem’s impact, to allow for the unspoken to sit with the spoken. An Acrostic is a poem in which the first letter of each line spells out a word, name or message. I saw the Acrostic form as just another constraint to provide a center around which my poems focus. Given the general short number of letters in people’s names, some Acrostic poems provide a pregnant density much like Haiku. When names are longer, one can choose a classic form such as the sonnet.
All of these poems emanate from my connection with people, connections which are dear and sometimes remotely admiring. Even poems inspired by a visit to an historic location are motivated by an imagined bond with the individuals associated to that place. Each personal acrostic in this collection is a conversation with the individuals named.
Get T L Oberman’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Some of these personal acrostics are written in rhyming stanzas. As the person is at the focus of the poem, I choose to break the stanzas of the poem according to the name, rather than the rhyme scheme.
