Abecedarians are a simple way to practice writing poems because the constraint is minimal and has an ending built in. There are many beautifully written abecedarians, like Natalie Diaz’s “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphim Subjugation of a Wild Indian Reservation.” I love how seamlessly the lines go together:
Angels don’t come to the reservation.
Bats, maybe, or owls, boxy mottled things.
Coyotes, too. They all mean the same thing—
death. And death
eats angels, I guess, because I haven’t seen an angel
fly through this valley ever.
Here are some other Abecedarians:
Hangul Abecedarian by Frank Choi
Elegy Abecedarian by Devi S. Lasker
This is one of my humble attempts:
Frog Abecedarian
Amphibians are a lot of
beating hearts. They are wet, slimy
creatures, maybe sweet to some.
Deep in the lily pads almost
every night sit the
frogs
gathering their crucks and croaks
heaving
in insects and
jostling with each other, the
katydids don’t mind.
Long ago, other frogs
met each other at noon,
offering croaks and crucks at the same
pond.
Queens are important.
Royalty is the frog.
Speaking only for themselves,
they
uttered their crickety
voices
waited for night. An
X number of frogs and
zero toads.
Leave a Reply