Time yourself as you write in some way (with a timer, the length of a song, or the length of a page). Write for roughly 8 minutes in response to the following prompt. Try to write for the whole time, without stopping, in sentences, without line breaks. Work to get all of your thoughts on the page, without worrying about what you are writing, or how. It is encouraged to follow wherever your mind leads.
The Prompt:
What do you excel at that was once difficult for you to do? This could be an aspect of your profession, an uncommon skill or hobby, dealing with challenging emotions or memories, navigating complicated social situations or customs, etc. The topic you choose should be a skill or ability you have learned and honed, not an ability you have always excelled at naturally. After selecting one topic, write down all you know about that topic: your knowledge base, your process, instructions for others, etc.
Abecedarian
The abecedarian poem is organized around the sequence of an alphabet, traditionally in an acrostic, where each letter begins a line of the poem, forming the alphabetic sequence when read vertically. Most modern readers associate abecedarians with children’s literature, particularly primers used to teach language and reading (A is for Apple, B is for Bear, etc.). The earliest abecedarians were spiritual or meditative devices used for prayers, hymns, and prophecies. In both uses, as primer and prayer, the alphabetic sequence acts as a mnemonic device.
Abecedarians to Read:
Franny Choi, "Hangul Abecedarian"
Natalie Diaz, "Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation"
torrin a. greathouse, "Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination Before a Diagnosis Can Be Determined"
Sun Yung Shin, "Abecedarian: On Purchasing and Receiving Genetic Information from Two Commercial DNA Companies"
Karenne Wood, "Abracadabra, an Abecedarian"
Assignment:
Compose an abecedarian about a topic or skill you have learned and now know well. You may describe your learning experience, or aim to instruct others. Include all 26 letters of the alphabet.
Maggie Queeney (she/her) is the author of In Kind (University of Iowa Press, 2023), winner of the 2022 Iowa Poetry Prize, and settler (Tupelo Press, 2021). She received the 2019 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize, a Ruth Stone Scholarship, and an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago in both 2019 and 2022. Her work appears in the Kenyon Review, Guernica, the Missouri Review, and The...