Acrostrichs

Source (with kind permission): http://wortblume.de/dichterinnen/hkreuz02.htm

Hoyers also wrote a number of short poems, often in the form of an acrostich, as seen here. Acrostich poems incorporate certain letters or words and work them so that they provide a significant message. They frequently also serve as a mnemonic. Here, Hoyers creates two images of a cross shaped from the same letters arranged in horizontal and vertical patterns which in their symmetry are approximately the inverse of each other. These are the beginning letters of each word in the respective first lines of the two verses below, which declare a fundamental tenet of Hoyer’s faith: the centrality of Christ. Christ’s role as mediator between and embodiment of Holy Scripture and God is visualised in the unchanging central position of the letter ‘C’ and the word ‘Christus’ in the acrostich image and poem. The two crosses serve as prompts to the reader to recite the simple verses (11 syllables, AAA BBB rhyme) as they meditate on the image.