Symbiotic Acrostic Poetry

Please view these excellent examples of this new poetry form!

" Surrender"   "Passive - Agressive"   "Invalid Item" 
"Water and Earth"   "Marriage and Divorce"   "Invalid Item" 

Symbiotic Acrostic Poetry
poetry-form created by PatrickB-new biz with MissBee

A symbiotic acrostic poem (SAP) is a detailed and challenging word-play showing the interconnectedness of two to four concepts, items, expressions, or subjects. "Symbiosis" as it is used here does not limit itself to two or more living entities as its meaning implies in biology. With this new poetry form, what is important is that the constituent subjects of the poem have an undeniable interconnectedness as displayed by the poem as a whole. In this sense, it retains only its literal Greek meaning, "living together."

Before beginning an expression as challenging as this, one must make sure he or she understands how we derive the interconnectedness of relationships. A good way to discover these types of relationships is to think of:

Cause-and-effect
EX: moon/tides
EX: rain/flood

Polar opposites
EX: soft/hard
EX: male/female
EX: night/day

Types of a generality
EX: FLOWER-rose/daisy/tigerlily
EX: SCIENCE-biology/chemistry/astronomy
EX: RELIGION-god-centered/nature-centered)

Constituent parts of a unity
EX: fire/water/air/earth
EX: autumn/winter/spring/summer
EX: father/son/holy-spirit

The possibilities are literally endless for this poetry-form.

FORMAT:

Once you have chosen a symbiotic relationship to write about, the next step is to count your lines and format it properly. A SAP will always have a determined number of lines from the beginning. For the sake of space, we will keep our example simple.

A SAP about the relationship between night and day would have seventeen total lines ("Night"[5]) + ("Symbiotic"[9]) + ("Day"[3]) = 17

By its very form, an acrostic with this format has the chance to be unbalanced if not handled well. In the above example, if equal words and images are not given to "Day" in 3 lines as are given to "Night" in 5, the poem has the possibility of becoming figuratively unbalanced. Remedies for this include shorter lines in the "Night" section and longer ones in the "Day" section, or else packing a punch in the "Day" section with more powerful conventions. A quality poet, always thinking of his or her expression as a whole, will find interesting ways to circumvent this innate inequality. It adds to the challenge.

The "Symbiotic" mainstay of every SAP is a 9-line acrostic expression that is always between SAP subjects. It is in these 9 lines that the poet has his or her chance to show how the subjects are interconnected.

Here are the formats for reference:

2-subject SAPs
subject-mainstay-subject
3-subject SAPs
subject-mainstay-subject-mainstay-subject
4-subject SAPS
subject-mainstay-subject-mainstay-subject-mainstay-subject

Here is how each line in a SAP called "Night and Day" would look:
N-I-G-H-T [stanza break] S-Y-M-B-I-O-T-I-C [stanza break] D-A-Y

_________________________________________________________________________

Night and Day
by Patrick Bernardy

Never bright
Is it in the night.
Gone is light,
Happily sleeping, out of sight.
Tomorrow it returns with all its might.

Sun or moon, dusk or dawn, transitions between day and night
Your eyes can't choose which one is more splendid in the sky.
Masses of colors between the switches, like the pallette of the Gods,
Beckoning words to describe its visual majesty
In poetry.
Out comes shadows at night, then light at dawn, and people dwell.
They choose one or the other to live within,
Infusing masterpieces from morning or midnight Muses,
Combed over for many cycles of the sun, sleeping only when they're done.

DAWN!
Arrays of light,
Yellow, welcoming sun.

___________________________________________________________________________

This is a typical SAP. Note the format. There are no restrictions as pertains to rhyme or rhythm. Each line can be a full sentence, a single word, a clause, or even two or more sentences. The only restriction is that each line of each stanza begin with the proper letter of the subject-mainstay-subject format for a two-subject SAP. Also, note how I emphasized the imbalance between lines by keeping my section of "Day" concise. This may seem like the opposite approach to what is needed, but sometimes less is more. It all depends on how each poet interprets the subjects and what expression he or she wants to give.

I would love to see how these are handled. If you have written one of these using this format, please email it to me with a link to your poem. I guarantee a review and response. I am also in the coming days going to form a poetry reviewing group with another member, and offer this format as a monthly contest. Feedback is most welcomed and appreciated. If you do not wish to review this piece, that is fine, but if you have something valuable to offer to make this a better poetry form, please at least email me. Thank you and happy writing!

PatrickB-new biz with MissBee