Today’s challenge is to write a poem that plays with voice. For example, you might try writing a stanza that recounts something in the first-person, followed by a stanza recounting the same incident in the second-person, followed by a stanza that treats the incident from a third-person point of view. Or you might try a poem in the form of a dialogue, which necessarily has two “I” speakers, addressing two “you”s. Another way to go is to take an existing poem of yours or someone else’s, and try rewriting it in a different voice. The point is just to play with who is speaking to who and how.
I’m not sure how close I am to succeeding on this prompt but I enjoyed writing this poem and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it too.
Get your head-phones off, put off the T.V.
Stop talking. Why don’t you study?
I’ve repeated this oft so many,
Can you do your work more carefully?
Can you not see-
A few marks can make the difference between a grade “C” and a “B”?
There are barely-
Less than 30,
Days to the G.C.S.Es!
Mamma please, let me be,
You’re stressing me-
Totally,
Stop reminding me continuously,
Its’ driving me crazy.
Would you rather I cry or go weak in my knee?
It’s I, who must give the G.C.S.E.s
I wish you’d understand, if only…
I’m worried too, can’t you see?
Oh! I wish I did see,
But if you say so, then it makes me truly happy,
I said, as she looked at me unflinching… incredulously.
You care and therefore you worry,
I explained, matter-of-factly.
“Do you believe in me?” eyes wide, she looked beseechingly.
“I do,” I said my voice steady, reassuringly,
Covering shadows of doubt I had, if any,
And her smile reached her eyes, Bold and Ready!
For hadn’t they said,
“Behind every child who believes
Is a Parent who believed First”.
And hadn’t they also said,
“The four most powerful words
that one could tell a child,
are, I Believe in YOU.”
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