Today, I’d like to challenge you to write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in alphabetical order, or you could write one in which each line begins with a word that follows the order of the alphabet. This is a prompt that lends itself well to a certain playfulness. Need some examples? Try this poem by Jessica Greenbaum, this one by Howard Nemerov or this one by John Bosworth.
always, boldly choose diversity,
expeditiously flee
hateful, grasping, insolent, joyless kin.
let me now offer proscriptions:
quit repeatedly striving
to underestimate
venomous words;
xenophobes
yawp
zealously.
defying atrophy 