Our example poem this week is by Marilyn Nelson. Her poem Green-Thumb Boy is about George Washington Carver, a black botanist who was originally born as a slave, but flourished as a scientist after slavery was abolished. The poem is from the perspective of another scientist, Pammel, a white man who taught Carver at Iowa State. I like listening to Pammel’s perspective, as he changes his mind about Carver, ultimately ending up impressed with him, and considering him a colleague.

This week, I want you to write a poem about a historical figure, either from the perspective of that figure, or from the perspective of another character observing the famous one. What are distinguishing features about this person that you can highlight? Note, you can either tell a realistic tale, or place the historical character in a new setting (like Walt Whitman in a grocery store, ala Allen Ginsberg’s A Supermarket in California). Have fun with it!

By the way, I retrieved the image of George Washington Carver from the New York Public Library’s Digital Collection: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Art and Artifacts Division, The New York Public Library. “Dr. G.W. Carver at Work in His Laboratory” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1935 – 1943.

The second prompt this week is to think of a disappointment, either a real one in your own life, or one that you imagine. Write a poem about that disappointment, using at least one simile or metaphor for how the speaker feels (read about the lonely tree in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet “What my lips have kissed…”).