Sarah Mills

Writing a persona poem can be a way into a difficult poem, freeing one up to write with more honesty, risk, and vulnerability. I wrote "Abecedarian While Conjugating Verbs..." from the perspective of my novel’s protagonist. If you write fiction, write a poem from the perspective of one of your characters (bonus: this can also give you more insight into your character). Alternatively, embody a character from a book, TV show, or movie. You're using this persona as a vehicle, a way into a poem that may be challenging to write because of its topic or form, so especially try this if you have been wanting to write a ghazal, sonnet, sestina, abecedarian, or some other formal poem but don't know where or how to begin. See if your guard comes down when it's not really "you" writing. You can always choose to abandon the persona once you get started.