Kerry Says ~ Let's Find Our Poetic Voice

Poetic Voice, also known as the speaker, or persona (Latin for mask), refers to the voice that speaks a poem. This speaker is not usually identical to the author who writes the poem. The author may assume a role, or counterfeit the speech of a person in a particular situation.

Eating Poetry - Eating Words - Poet Poem
Artist Unknown
(No Infringement of Copyright Intended)

Last month, my close friend, Jay gave me the gift of books for my birthday, one of which is 100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda, translated by Stephen Tapscott. While reading Tapscott's Translator's Note, the following passage caught my eye and gave me the idea for today's challenge:

"Neruda's particular innovation is his use of voice, in sound and in syntax, as the force that binds lines and stanzas into integrated wholes. The delicate adhesive force of the voice, that sense of organic information, like the sound of the woods, is what an English version of these poems risks losing; not as much would be lost in terms of traditional "form" as might appear at first glance." [100 Love Sonnets, 2014 Edition, University of Texas Press, page ix]

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Before I continue, I want to stress that this challenge is not to emulate Neruda's form, style or voice, but to work with our own unique poetic voices. The following page entitled Speaker & Voice might help us to focus on a few key factors:

• Who “tells” the poem? 
• Are there things you can say about the speaker’s personality, point of view, tone, society, age, or gender? Does the speaker assume a persona at any point in the poem, and speak “as” a particular person (e.g., “I am Lazarus, come from the dead . . . I shall tell you all”)? 
• Does the speaker seem attached or detached from what is said? 
• What effect do the speaker’s characteristics have on the poem?

The poet should also take into account who is being addressed in the poem. This could also be an imagined persona, or someone known to the writer. Over and above the intimacy between speaker and addressee, is the audience (everyone else who will read the poem) and the poet must find the connection to the unknown reader by creating common experience. The following page from S-cool.co.uk may offer further insights.

This challenge is posted on Thursday but runs through to noon on Saturday, so please feel free to take your time in composing a poem and adding it to the links below. The subject, theme, form etc is wide open.