2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 19
For Day 19 of the 2025 April Poem-A-Day Challenge, poets (and other particular personalities) are tasked with writing a persona poem.
Whew! Let's keep those pens, pencils, keyboards, touchscreens, notes apps, etc., poeming away.
For today's prompt, write a persona poem. A persona poem is when you write in the voice of another person, real or imaginary. So maybe a sonnet in the voice of Mickey Mouse, or a sestina narrated by the Wright Brothers (yes, both of them), or a haiku from the perspective of Amelia Earhart. And yes, inanimate objects are fair game too (if you want to craft some free verse in the voice of a toothbrush). Have at it!
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
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Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.
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Here’s my attempt at a Persona Poem:
“William Gray,” by Robert Lee Brewer
I'm almost too good
to be true--some figment
of a fable told 'round
the dinner table to spook
adults and children, a quick
delight before diving into the real
work of the moment, the honest
hours freeing and fleeing and seeing
the opportunity to fight, and there I am
with a soft light glowing in my eyes
smiling from the trunk of some
half-formed fairy tale
ready to escape.
(A note on my persona poem: It was actually inspired by "Searching for William Gray: Finding the Real Story of Historical Narrative Nonfiction," by William Goodman, posted to the site yesterday.)
