Poetic Voices and Pencils-with-Erasers

Our Author's Day guest says,  "I want my poems to be entertaining-- dramatic language recited in character by a performer to an audience." Brod Bagert  certainly impressed-- and educated-- Lafayette audiences yesterday with wonderful poetry and entertaining presentations.  Voice is a very important part of Brod Bagert's work.. The poetic voice-- also known as the mask or the persona-- refers to the imagined speaker of a poem.  When we're reading, writing, and reciting poetry, it's important to remember that the poet often takes on a role or becomes a character in a poem.  Today, Brod Bagert's poetic voice is playing tricks, twisting and tangling the speaker's words:

There's a Goblin in My Throat 

There's a goblin in my throat

And he's such a nasty goat--

He always wants his way

With the words I try to say:

If I try to say "clown,"

He changes it to "frown."

If I try to say "daisy,"

He changes it to "lazy."

If I try to say "wink,"

He changes it to "stink."

It's very hard to be nice

With a goblin in your throat.

But still

I lov--vv... hate!

Because life is so

beautif-ff-ff... ugly!

And you're sweet as

sug-gg-gg-gg... salt!

You see?

These terrible things I say

Are really not my fault.

-- Brod Bagert

Today, Poetry on Parade also celebrates Pencils-with-Erasers Day, a day that promotes creative poetry writing-- and one that encourages us to correct our mistakes!  On March 30, 1858, Philadelphia inventor Hymen Lipman obtained an official patent for fastening an eraser to the end of a pencil:

Pencilly

The pencil is a splendid thing

For which there's no replacer.

But better than the pencil is

The little pink eraser.

-- Doug Florian

Pencils 

The rooms in a pencil

are narrow

but elephants     castles and watermelons

fit it

In a pencil

noisy words yell for attention

and quiet words wait their turn

How did they slip

into such a tight place?

Who

gives them their 

lunch?

From a broken pencil

an unbroken poem will come!

There is a long story living

in the shortest pencil 

-- Barbara Esbensen 

Let's celebrate our Poetic Voices and Pencils-with-Erasers Day!  Let's get out our writers' notebooks and put pencil to paper! If at first we don't succeed... we can make use of Hymen Lipman's wonderful invention!