Since ancient times, poets have used acrostics to embed “secret” messages in their poems (not so secret, actually -- an acrostic poem spells out its subject in the first letter of each line or stanza, and once you’ve seen the vertical message, it’s impossible to ignore). It seems quite natural that modern-day poets living under repressive regimes might turn to acrostic coding as a means of bypassing government censors. Now popular Burmese poet Saw Wai has been jailed for publishing a seemingly innocuous love poem that contained an acrostic complaint about Burma’s military dictator.

from BBC News:
“Burma poet held for secret insult,” by Steve Jackson
“The Burmese authorities have arrested a well known poet, who published a love poem with a hidden message criticising the country’s military leader. Poet Saw Wai’s work -- titled ‘February the Fourteenth’ -- was published in a Rangoon magazine, The Love Journal. Taken together, the first words of each line read: ‘General Than Shwe is crazy with power.’”

from The Guardian (UK):
“Poet held after coded attack on Burmese leader,” by Ian MacKinnon
“Saw Wai’s seemingly innocuous lines were printed in the weekly Love Journal. But read vertically, the first word of each line forms the phrase ‘Power crazy senior general Than Shwe.’ The issue of the magazine containing the eight-line poem entitled ‘February 14’ was published last month, but the author was only arrested on Tuesday after censorship board officials deciphered the message. The publisher and editor of the magazine, which printed the words under a picture of heart-shaped balloons inscribed ‘I Love You,’ were also questioned.”

More on acrostics and poem-puzzles:
Acrostic poem defined, with links to examples, in our Glossary of Poetic Forms
Abecedarian poem (a specialized kind of acrostic) defined, with an example, in our Glossary of Poetic Forms
“Acrostics --Mystical to Mind-Boggling,” from About.com’s Puzzles Guide Dave Fisher
“Waka Waka Bang Splat!” The World’s First Internet Special-Characters Poem
“Concrete Poetry/VisPo,” Poems take shape on the screen