If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Next Read-Around is 4/18/2024 at 5:00 PM PST

How It Works:

  1. Read the poem 

  2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

  3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

  4. Use the selection of prompts below

  5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

  6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

My Thoughts

Most children are fascinated by the natural world, at least those who play outside near unpaved ground instead of the interior world of computers and smart phones. I recall the thrilling mix of fear and fascination at the alien lives of spiders, worms, insects and other creepers found under rocks or hanging in fence corners and crannies or hidden in plain sight. Roly-poly bugs were among the most common insect fascinations in my California neighborhood when I was growing up. When disturbed, they curl into a ball and become play things we rolled around and then watched patiently to see how long it would take for them to uncurl and go about their business. I was re-introduced to them in Stephanie Burt’s poem, Poly-Poly Bug, which Ellen Bass shared as an example of a persona poem in her Living Room Craft Talk on Friday. A persona poem is an opportunity to give voice to a person, place, thing, or experience other than yourself. It is a chance to see the world differerently; an opportunity to be surprised by what flows from your fingers. It is also a way of expressing things you might not otherwise know how to say, as I imagine might be true for Burt, herself a poet and literary critic, with the roly-poly sense of not appearing as one would like to appear and to never let on how one looks inside. And we can all relate tothose sentiments and to the many ways we limit our chances of having a ball in life.

Roly-Poly Bug

Because I can’t ever appear
as I would like to appear,
I once tried to make it so you couldn’t see me at all.

I named myself after a pill,
but it didn’t help. I liked
the feeling of feeling small,

as long as it let me feel mobile; I wanted to roll
up and down and around the tiny hall.

of a groove in discarded cardboard. I used to appall
my peers with risky behavior. I might fall

to my death and a half-inch ditch
full of oil or lawnmower grease. I stall

at the brush of a fingertip. I’m so afraid
of a grand faux pas that I enter the the most banal

questions by quoting the questionnaire, so as to let
his words shield mine. I cover my anger
imperfectly, so I can breathe

with my head between my legs; I am my own
backyard slat fence, my own slate garden wall.

I am chitin and ichor inside, but I’ll never let on
how I look underneath. I could always make something
else of myself. I could be having a ball.

—Stephanie Burt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Burt

Prompt Ideas

  1. Write your own persona poem. You could embody a person (current or past, historical or fictional), or any other living or nonliving thing. If you do not know the subject you choose well, it is helpful to do some research for inspiration.

  2. Journal or write about times or moments when you believed you could not appear as you would like to appear in life.

  3. Journal or write about a nickname that you were given or make up a nickname for yourself and write in the voice of that name.

  4. When do you make yourself small (metaphorically)? Conversely, when do you make yourself big?

  5. What grand faux pas or social blunder do you fear? Journal or write a poem about it.

  6. Journal or write a poem using the prompt: “I’ll never let on how I look inside…how I… and then go on to describe some aspects of your inner world (use metaphor if it helps—like changing the names to protect the innocent).

  7. If you could, what else might you make of yourself?

  8. Journal or write a poem about what prevents you from, and what you might do if, you gave yourself permission to have a ball?

  9. As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.