Big news, y’all: my first paid post goes live tomorrow. It’s a brand-new poem for my paying subscribers only, both audio and in-print. To make sure you don’t miss it, click that subscribe button.
Relatedly, did you know that Aretha Franklin insisted on being paid upfront in cash for her performances? Sometimes she’d even take her cash-filled purse onstage with her and leave it on top of the piano while she sang. Iconic.
Aretha Franklin Hears an Echo While Singing “Save Me” is a persona poem inspired by research into the early years of the singer’s life.
This is a style of poem that I've always loved. In a persona poem, the author takes on the voice of a character and writes from the character’s perspective in first-person. I've found it to be an especially liberating poetic form because it challenges a writer to go out into the world in order to understand what’s happening within themselves. For example, my first book features a poem written in the voice of the kudzu plant, and the process of personification helped me unlock my own feelings about desire.
When it comes to Aretha Franklin, she is remembered overwhelmingly for the strength of her voice, talent and character. But when I read David Ritz’s biography of her, I was struck by Aretha’s shyness as a girl. She went silent for weeks when her mother died. In the book, her siblings suggested that though Aretha was indomitable in so many ways, it was also true that perhaps her strength was cultivated in order to protect the shy little girl inside her. That, to me, is fascinating, moving and complicated; a perfect starting point for a persona poem. Looking forward to sharing it with you.
When Aretha Franklin Went Silent