Here are some acrostics, poems built round a key 'stem' word, written vertically, and with horizontal lines filled in with words or phrases that relate to the subject / stem word.
Participants made them on the words of the original project title, Survive and Recover:
Saviour
Understanding
Rescue
Versatile
Invest
Vigour
Excel
(Frances)
Rough tough love hate not being able or together
Entering the vortex of desire to change & be able to drive forward
Clawing at the elements to make sculptures of competetent achievement
Overcoming hurdles of discarded incompetence
Veering into a future of serene integrity
Entering a jubilant race to laugh, smile & enjoy
Roaming around in a circle of achievement and bliss!
(JM)
Recovery often isn't straightforward, and the first words that come to mind may not always be the most optimistic / positive ones:
Reaching out
Emotions mangled
Communication stunted
Overwhelmed
Vocabulary vacates
Each facet of the mind
Ruminating over nothing
(?Claire)
Here is a compilation of single words participants contributed on the theme of 'Recover':
Respect, resilience, reaching out, reboot, rest
Empathy, emotion, empowerment, exit, empower, excited, explain, examine
Construction, communication, community, confidence, connect, consider, control
Observation, order, ownership, ongoing, onwards
Vitality, vocation, vacation, vehement, volatile, verse, victory, vision
Energy, endgame, endeavour, enjoy, encourage, encounter, explain, enter
Restitution, ruminating, reality, re-organise, receive, read, reason
For more on Acrostics, see the post 'Still Connected'.
Writing Exercise
Acrostics are something that can be done quite quickly to distract in distressing situations, or to find out how you feel about a new situation or environment. They're great for passing time in a waiting room! For the 'stem', use words that are significant for you at the moment (or you could always start with your name, or the name of the place you're in). If you are new to this, start with single words; later you can go on to write longer lines. Read back and see if what you've written still rings true for you. If not, make a new version.
Or, look at the compilation of 'Recover' words above. Could you add to them, or re-arrange for optimal effect (thinking about both sound and sense), or use one or more words as a starting point for your own piece of writing?