Create a short story, piece of memoir, or epic poem that is 26 sentences long, in which the first sentence begins with “A” and each sentence thereafter begins with the next letter of the alphabet.
Photographers, artists, poets: show us ORDERLY.
Anyone can tell a story, but not everyone can tell it like I do
Best to start now and begin the tale of how I came to be with you
Can it be possible that two people so unlike each other can sit still for even an hour?
Dare say even a minute or two, without the barest hint of a glower?
Elephant in the room, they say, that’s the thing we have between us two
Far leaning much to the right, and the other to the left, what’s left for us to do?
Go on and keep on going, that’s the answer to everything that comes along the path
Having each other, no matter our differences, we’re just two souls fitting into the math
In which one plus one is simply two, there’s really nothing to it
Just go with the flow, my love, let’s simply grin devilishly and bear it
Kisses in the moonlight, starlight and even in the daylight
Love knows no time nor space, really, we’re simply two romantics looking to the light
Merely because we know that as they say, love truly conquers all
Never a doubt between us, that’s the first and last thought we had before the fall
Only when eyes shut in the night of our lives do we then say good night
Pair our dreams with dreamless sleep till we awake ready for the fight
Quick to rise and quicker still to rush into this fray called reality
Running together, hands held tight, we see nothing but you and me
So this here is the tale that has no beginning and no end
This is the story of you and me, to one another a lover and a friend
Understand, if you’re still with me, that the tale I tell is pretty universal
Vast and widely used, the tale of love to life in general is something so integral
Were life ever so bland that should you feel there is nothing in it for you
Xerxes the Great never understood it when faced with Leonidas’ courage true
You may not find our tale so coherent, because it really doesn’t make any sense
Zany, I know, but if you’ve read this far down, I hope you forgive me this offense.
Morrighan's Muse 
hmmm — Xerxes is a stretch, but a valiant response to the prompt!
A lot of Hebrew liturgical poetry is built on this structure, I think because authors thought it would help people remember the order of the lines.
We learned the same structure in school having to read epic poetry and it’s been awhile since I’ve actually done it.
And yes, Xerxes is a stretch, but there’s not a lot of words that make sense that begin with X – though there a lot that end with it, though it would not have been appropriate 🙂
I think it’s the same for a lot of poetry out there. We had to recite epic poetry in high school in front of the class and it was the only way we could remember it without having to look at a piece of paper. The rhythm and the arrangement of the lines definitely helps one remember long passages, much like Hebrew liturgical literature as well. I remember having to memorize epic poetry in Filipino and that drove me bonkers because I didn’t understand half of what I was saying but it didn’t matter as long as I was reciting it 🙂
Very clever! I’m impressed! Excellent.
Thank you 🙂
Great poem. Well done for working out a way to incorporate that tricky “X”!
Thank you! Yes, that tricky X indeed. Thank goodness the poem wasn’t making any sense by the time it reached X 🙂
This is my favorite line of this truly epic poem – “Kisses in the moonlight, starlight and even in the daylight”. Fabulous work, loved it. Also, I agree with the X words, they are tricky little buggers but you get maximum bonus points for going with Xerxes / The 300!
Thank you! Go 300! 🙂
This is lovely and very clever!
Thank you 🙂