Fountainhead In a Poem

A fiction book relflection acrostic poem

He was a man of his own making

One stubborn soul against all convention

Whether he won or lost he didn’t care

All he wanted was to design buildings

Roman and Victorian weren’t his style

Drawing inspiration from contemporary ahead of its time

Ruined by his actions and that of his love

Or would he even have had it any other way?

Another may see it as hardships, he probably called it life

Rather live on his own terms than merely exist

Knowing almost that he was a character to be ardently admired or abhorred.

This acrostic poem is written in response to a challenge by fellow writer and dear friend Terry L. Cooper who is being creative this holiday season and making us all use our rusting brains. The challenge was to basically do a creative play on a traditional acrostic. I chose to write about my favorite character from my favorite fiction novel. I’ve also written before about how he is the only idol I’ll ever have.

I tag Tree Langdon, one of the best poets I know, to take this forward. Pick one, write away and tag the next person :)

P.S. I notice Terry never wrote one of her own — so Terry L. Cooper I tag you too, to lead by example, of course, second only to my awesome start.

Try one of these ideas to put a fun twist on the traditional acrostic poetry writing activity and help differentiate your lesson or challenge your entire class.

· Alliteration Acrostic Poems: Each word in the line starts with the starting letter of each line. (Say what??)

· Verb Acrostic Poems: Each line is comprised of verbs that can be done in a specific season, holiday, sport, or place.

· Adjective Acrostic Poems: Each line is comprised of adjectives to describe something specific.

· Personal Experience Acrostic Poems: Each line includes a memory of an important event that is the focus word of the acrostic poem. Example: Field Trip, Graduation, Birthday

· Specific Direction: Be specific and narrow when you give directions for this type of acrostic poem. Example: For a “Friendship” acrostic poem, have students write about the characteristics that make a good friend on each line.

· Focus on Nonfiction: Have students research something related to a topic. Example: For an “America” acrostic, students can research Memorial Day or Flag Day, gather information and record what they learned in the form of an acrostic poem. This is perfect for biography and research projects, too. If you are studying endangered animals, have students create an acrostic poem for “endangered” and include all the information from their research in their poem.

· Fiction Book Reflection: These are so much fun to write and offer the students a change in the traditional summary or reader reflection activity. Example: If you are studying characters, have students write the name of a character from their book and fill in each acrostic poem line with character traits, feelings, and actions-all supported by examples from the text. It is an engaging way for students to show what they know! This also works well with settings. Have the students write the name of an important setting from a book and write the acrostic poem with the focus of how the setting impacted the story.

· Mixed Up Acrostic Poems: Each line has a different rule created by you! Be creative and use your students’ ideas and interests to guide you.