Having the answer word in all blank letters and then having to unscramble them is a really novel element to add to the mesostic game. I think it's pretty cool.

Do it. Do it. Do it.

Mesostic poems are new to me. I don't agree that the rules are pointless. One might argue that without the rules, the form would be pointless--unless the resulting shaped poem were intricate enough to show that the placement in each line of the salient letter was not random (calling Jan D. Hodge!). Bob, you've added some clever twists which vitalize the thing.

Annie, I second Martin in urging you to write that poem. And explain your method. How would one hide a message that would be seen only by a speed reader? (Would you assume the reader were reading in a Z pattern, as they tried to teach Bob to do?)

Go play scrabble if you want intersecting words.

Kevin, that’s so cruel. Hah. Basically my opinion also unless the overall structure is special somehow, at least for people over nine years old. Still, there are lovable folk who do all sorts of things. Synchronized swimming, for example.