When my son was born I wanted to express how much he meant to me so I started writing down a few adjectives and phrases and before I knew it I had written a poem. I didn’t know it at the time but it was an acrostic poem because each line started with a letter of his name, which when placed in the correct order spelled out his name. I then went on to write poems for all my nephews and nieces and then requests came in from friends for their kids so I ended up writing quite a few. By putting them in a lovely frame they became a lovely gift for a birthday, Christmas or to celebrate the birth of a friend’s baby.

It’s not difficult to write an acrostic poem as you can see from the two examples below.

Start by jotting down lots of adjectives that you would want to use to describe children you know. Stick to positive adjectives and be exuberant in your praise. Everyone will love you for it because everyone wants to think their child is adored by all. Use a theosaurus to help your list. Now write short lists of all the adjectives which rhyme or nearly rhyme. Now you can start writing your poem.

Write the child’s name vertically and simply write something nice next to each letter (see examples below). I prefer mine to rhyme but they don’t have to if you prefer not.

MAGDA

M is for magical, precious as a pearl

A is for angelic, with cascading curls

G  is for gorgeous, cute little girl

D is for darling of the whole world

A is for adorable cos that’s what you are

Magda you’re a real star!

Ella

E is for exquisite, a rare, precious jewel

L is for laughter, you make our lives full

L is for lovely, so cute and so sweet

A is for adorable, you’re such a treat

Ella - child of our hearts

It is also nice to add their birth date and a picture of some kind. This was easy for me to do as I was doing it on the computer.

For example you could write.

Ella May Jones born on 3rd January 2002 to John and Mary

I also like to put a border round the poem but for boys I usually keep it more simple.