PAD Day 18: Alphabetical Advice

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NapoWriMo: (1) Write a "love"and/or "anti-love" poem, and (2) write an abecedarian. 

There are several ways to do an abecedarian poem. You can write it with only one word per line, in alphabetical order from A to Z. That's rather hard to get to make sense and not sound forced, though. So many poets have taken to just making sure the first word of each line begins with each successive letter of the alphabet. (To see an excellent example, check out this poem by Catherine Pierce.) You don't have to start with A either: you could go in reverse from Z to A, or even start with a selected letter and "wraparound" through the alphabet to the letter before it. For instance, I once wrote an abecedarian that started with the letter M and ended with L, because it was addressed to the Moon.

I thought I'd try something different this time, though, and wrote what I call a "phonetic abecedarian." That is, instead of each line beginning with the next actual letter of the alphabet, they begin with the sound of the name of each letter. Only ten of the lines still start with the actual letter, but their first or only syllable is the name of the letter, as in "be", define", "people", etc. The rest start with words like "see (C)," "cue (Q)" and "double you (W)."  (H was the hardest but I used "a charm.") And the last line is a numeral!

Marriage Advice
( a "phonetic abecedarian")
 
A little later this year we will
be celebrating a milestone. Anyone can
see we're still in love, it's what
defines us. But it hasn't always been
easy. Marriage takes work,
effort.  And here a younger couple says,
"Gee, we never realized." There's not
a charm against arguments; we don't always see
eye to eye. Sometimes we squawk like
jay birds, sometimes we coo like doves, our
cadence in sync. "Don't go to bed angry" is an
elementary rule. But we're not
eminent psychologists. We can't
ensure what works for us will for you.
Oh, there's always work to do,
people, and when you've done it,
cue the violins. Now you
are ready for romance. The
essence of marriage is having fun.
Tease, joke, titillate, show your mate that
you enjoy their company. But also,
"Viva la difference!" and your pleasure will
double. You only live once.
Express happiness and get it in return.
Why not let the score be Joy 2, Misery
0?