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 