Have you seen the beautiful poetry collection by Kate Coombs Today I am a River? In each poem, the author takes on the “mask” or “persona” of something in nature.
Wind
1st stanza of “Wind” from Kate Coombs book “Today I am a River”
I am the wind.
Sometimes I rage!
I slash through forests,
stamp over mountains.
I am a giant, an ogre, a troll–
I kick the treetops,
yell, bellow, and roar!
This is a book students can access easily. It taps into pretend play. What if I were the wind today?
On Tuesday afternoon, I attended a workshop at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. We wrote poems to art, ekphrasis. One of the areas held two stained glass pieces of the same tree image. One tree was surrounded by clear glass, the other in dark blue. I took on the persona of night speaking to dawn.
Next week is my turn to challenge our Inklings for the first Friday of the month. I challenged them and now you to write a persona poem. Here are a few links to persona poems: Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, The Piano Speaks by Sandra Beasly, and an essay from The Poetry Foundation by Rebecca Hazelton.
I am Night
Margaret Simon, draft
I am night
I feel ordinary light
listening to noisy killdeers
chattering in my mind.
I seek dawn–
open the shades, hopeful a new day will come.
I twitch at the backdoor,
mew like hungry cats
waiting to be fed.
Will you come walk with me?
Turn toward the east.
Watch sun rise
in pink and purple
above the trees.
Will you seek my shadow
for comfort
or rise?
Reflections on the Teche 
Beautiful photo and poem, Margaret. I especially like the questions in your poem inviting the reader to take a closer look.
Margaret, I love Night’s voice —a gentle longing, a reminder to be present with it.
Enjoyed your persona poem (and I like Kate’s book). Thanks for the loveliness this week. 🙂
Persona poems are great fun! I especially like how your Night is twitching at the backdoor. Terrific visual!
Margaret, I really enjoyed reading this and the “noisy killdeers/chattering in my mind” is a perfect way of describing night’s restlessness.
Lovely…”I am the night…” is such a beautiful way to enter the poem. “Seek dawn, turn toward the east…” all things that night does.
I love persona poems and I love thinking of night “twitching at the back door.”
Margaret, your poem is so reflective and presents a wonderful way to start a poem. The following lines present a wonderful image.
mew like hungry cats
waiting to be fed.
This beautiful! I love the image of the cat at the back door, waiting to be fed and then the surprise of the invitation “Will you come walk with me?”
Thanks for sharing this with us!
Margaret, I need to set a reminder for Poetry Fridays. I always forget, and then when I remember I wish I’d set a reminder. I’m tying a string around my finger. I love the feel of the night poem. The wind, the trees, the being in nature feels very Christina Rossetti/Margaret Simon/Kate Coombs today. I like it.
I am going to be writing mask poems with some middle schoolers in a few weeks–will definitely look for Kate’s book!
I love the idea of night’s ‘being’, Margaret! What yearning you have shown from it. I love “I twitch at the backdoor,” want to imagine its pushing, pushing, wanting to be let in. What fun you’re going to have with this and sharing Kate’s wonderful book.
Enchanting Margaret… I love that night invites us to walk and view the sunrise, and seek its shadow for comfort, what a wonderful twist, thanks!
Thank you for generously offering your prompt to the entire PF community! I love it when we all play together! Also, did you see that Maggie Smith gave away an entire lesson plan for teaching persona poems? What a gift!
Yes! I tried to send it to the group, but I guess because it’s from the paid subscription, it would not send. I used parts of it with my students this week.
Margaret, I love both of your persona /mask poems and I enjoy writing them, too. Thank you for the invitation, also. Your wind poem comes alive with all your strong verbs slash, stamp, I kick the treetops, yell, bellow and roar. Great voice in both of your poems! In your Night poem, I love how you begin “I am night ordinary light listen to noisy killdeers chattering in my mind.” I adore “I twitch at the backdoor, mew like hungry cats waiting to be fed.” Again, your use of strong verbs and the images you painted with these verbs have brought your poems alive. You must have had lots of fun writing persona poems with your students along with Kate Coombs new book. I love and own her Breathe and Be: A Book of Mindfulness Poems. I also love her Water Sings Blue book and how it helped to inspire my students to write about the ocean. Thank you for sharing your joy of teaching, the new book, your poems, and your inspiration. 🙂
One thing I like about this form is the multitude of possible subjects one can be. Your poem about night made me think about it more deeply and what night might desire. Coomb’s book sounds great!
It feels like persona poems provide us the superpower to become someone/something else for the length of a poem.
Your ‘Night’ poem is a great example of doing just that, Margaret. Will look for Coomb’s book, too. 🙂
[…] week for Poetry Friday, Margaret Simon on her blog post: Reflections on the Teche, invited us to join her writing group the Inklings, with the poem prompt she gave them this month: to […]