Think of two topic words that you could use as the basis of your dueling acrostic poem. Traditionally, dueling acrostics use two related nouns with opposing characteristics. For example, you could use THUNDERSTORM and SUNSHINE, or FATHER and MOTHER. Keep in mind that the words selected don't have to be strictly opposed to each other, but they need to be related so that you can compare and contrast their features or describe their relationship to one another. You could complete a dueling acrostic for TABLE and CHAIR, for example, even though these words aren't opposites.
Write your first topic word vertically, in block capitals, down the left-hand side of the page.
Write a word or phrase that describes the topic word and begins with the topic's first letter. Single words and entire phrases are both acceptable, and WritingFix provides an example of both approaches. For the "F" in FATHER, for example, WritingFix uses the single word "Football." For the "M" in mother, the site uses the entire phrase "Means the world to me." Generally, using sentences and phrases instead of single words makes creative expression and description easier.
Continue down the topic word, adding a descriptive word or phrase beginning with each of the word's letters.
Write your second topic word vertically down the page, to the right of your first word and its descriptive phrases. Leave a good amount of space between the topic words, but don't place your second word so far to the right that you won't have room to write phrases out horizontally.
Mimicking what you did with the first topic word, write a word, short phrase, or sentence that starts with each of the word's letters and describes the topic. If you're up for a challenge, look at what kinds of words you used to describe your first topic, and try to write words or phrases that make a direct comparison. For example, if you wrote "Football" for the "F" in FATHER, you could write "Making cookies" for the "M" in MOTHER--you'd be describing both people in terms of activities they enjoy.