Exquisite Corpse is a cooperative poetry game, played by multiple people, with it’s roots tracing back to the Parisian Surrealist Movement. Each person playing writes one word on a sheet of paper, conceals the paper by folding it, and passes it on to the next person for their contribution. In order to write the poem, as a group, the players should agree on the sentence structure beforehand.

For example, each sentence in the poem could be structured “Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun.” Similar to Mad Libs, except players create the whole poem with their choice of words based on their chosen sentence structure.

As an example, the following is an Exquisite Corpse composed by the intrepid Academy staff using the sentence construction Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun.

Slung trousers melt in a roseate box.
A broken calendar oscillates like sunny tin.
The craven linden growls swimmingly. Blowfish.
A glittering roof slaps at crazy ephemera.

Try your hand with a group of family and/or friends today. It can go on as long as you want, and is fun for any age!