Abecedarian

The Prompt

Welcome to our first abecedarian poetry challenge! In this unique form of poetry, each line progresses alphabetically, from A to Z. This means the first line starts with the letter A, the second line with B, and so on. Your poem should be 26 lines in total.

Your task is to craft a captivating piece, connecting diverse themes, emotions, or narratives while maintaining the alphabetical progression. Whether you're a seasoned poet or a novice, this challenge invites you to explore the intricate dance between language and structure. We hope this gets your creative juices flowing to kick off the new year.

In order for your submission to qualify, it must:

The Prizes

Special shout-out to Kay Husnick for suggesting this challenge idea in Share Your Ideas to Shape the Future of Vocal Challenges.

For your poem to be eligible, it should be submitted to the Poets Community, follow the rules above, and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Poems published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until 11:59 PM ET on February 2, 2024 will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.

The Abecedarian Challenge is exclusive to Vocal+ members. To learn more and upgrade to Vocal+ visit https://vocal.media/vocal-plus.

To be eligible to win the grand prize, second place, or runners-up prizes, you must be over the age of 13 and residing in a country where Stripe is available at the time of entry. A complete list of countries where Stripe is available can be found here—winners will need to have a Stripe account created and connected in order to receive the prizes. For this reason, entrants located outside of any of these countries will not be eligible to win.