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.)
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
