Whether you are an accomplished poet or a new one, wish to write or to hone a poem, our monthly workshop will inspire you. To attend virtually, contact Sue Cummings via email scummings817@comcast.net
Our Prompt for May is to write a "persona poem" A persona poem is one in which the poet speaks through an assumed voice, not their own.
Persona poems are theatrical monologues of a real living or dead person, or of a fictional character ( not necessarily human, not necessarily literary, not necessarily animate). For example: One might choose to give voice to a discarded paper cup, blowing in a brisk May breeze along an asphalt road.
Here's an example of a persona poem by Stephanie Burt a literary critic and poet who is Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University. In this poem the speaker is a Roly-Poly Bug. FYI: The Epigraph of this poem Non serviam = I Will Not Serve
Roly-Poly Bug
By Stephanie Burt
Non serviam*
Because I can’t ever appear
as I would like to appear,
I once tried to make it so you couldn’t see me at all.
I named myself after a pill
but it didn’t help. I liked
the feeling of feeling small,
as long as it let me feel mobile; I wanted to roll
up and down and around the tiny hall
of a groove in discarded cardboard. I used to appall
my peers with risky behavior. I might fall
to my death in a half-inch ditch
full of oil or lawnmower grease. I stall
at the brush of a fingertip. I’m so afraid
of a grand faux pas that I answer the most banal
questions by quoting the questioner, so as to let
his words shield mine. I cover my anger
imperfectly, so I can breathe
with my head between my ten legs; I am my own
backyard slat fence, my own slate garden wall.
I am chitin and ichor inside, but I’ll never let on
how I look underneath. I could always make something
else of myself. I could be having a ball.
As a Bonus Challenge include three or more words selected at random from The Fran Lebowitz Reader, by Fran Lebowitz
initials, red wine, political, soybeans, synthetic, ax, hutches, aficionado, loft, plaids, wry, Esperanto, blacksmiths, venture, fad, hasten, prerogative, ape, sheer, undertone, obstruction, synthesizer, appliance, lamp, science, furnish, permanent, rare, memento, kiss, Ming vase, aromatic, tie-dyed, chronic, wont, tractor-trailer, bales, birch trees, struck, snap, category, maturation, location, blunt, amphitheater, clumsy, pared-down, squeamish, proportion, relinquish, cellophane,
accouterments, potato chips, news, quicksilver, novice, unwise, variety, vicissitudes, facetious, hone, elegant, ironic, wisecrack
Mon, May 13 | 9:00AM to 5:00PM |
Tue, May 14 | 9:00AM to 9:00PM |
Wed, May 15 | 9:00AM to 9:00PM |
Thu, May 16 | 9:00AM to 5:00PM |
Fri, May 17 | 9:00AM to 5:00PM |
Sat, May 18 | 9:00AM to 5:00PM |
Sun, May 19 | Closed |
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