Hello, Poetry Friend
You already know I love writing poems about books. To celebrate the 1st birthday of my illustrated and annotated edition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, I am writing poems about the other ghosts in the story — not about Marley and the Big Three we all know and love, but about the others we hurry past.
This week I’m writing about the fictional characters who come to life when Scrooge revisits his school with the Ghost of Christmas Past. Those characters are as real as his old classmates. The first one he recognizes is Ali Baba.
“‘Why, it’s Ali Baba!’ Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. ‘It’s dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know. One Christmas time when yonder solitary child was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy!’”
–Stave II, “The First of the Three Spirits.
Ali Baba is followed by Valentine, Orson, the Sultan’s Groom, the Genii, and the Princess. They are as real to Scrooge as the characters Don Quixote lists as his friends.
“Because wanting to convince anyone that there was no Amadís in the world or any of the adventuring knights who fill the histories, is the same as trying to persuade that the sun does not shine, ice is not cold, and the earth bears no crops. […] If that is a lie, it must also be true that there was no Hector, no Achilles, no Trojan War, no Twelve Peers of France, no King Arthur of England who was transformed into a crow and whose return is awaited in his kingdom to this day.”
Don Quixote, part 4, chapter XLIX
And oh, isn’t this is why we read! To have characters speak to us. To have their voices as clear in our minds as those of our loved ones.
This is why I reread books like A Christmas Carol every year. Because Ali Baba was always there, but I had never listened to him.
How to Listen
If stories are not true
if there is no Kristin
no Jane
no Jackie
no Knight of the Sorrowful Face
no Aslan
no Charlotte
no Clara, needing a friend like Gus
no ghost like a child and an old man
no Ali Baba for one night more then
call me crazy. For I never
tire of spending this coin
and reading once again the magic words:
chapter 1
–Megan Willome
Poetry Journal
Make a list of characters you’ve encountered in a novel who you desperately hope are real.
If you’re coming up empty on that question, what characters have your children loved?
If a character could come for Christmas, whose voice would you want to hear at your door?
Put one or more of your character-friends in a poem. If you like, email me what you write.
Happy poeming!
Megan
I'm going to have fun with these journal prompts, but for sure, Annie McGairy from Joy in the Morning. I walk around Ann Arbor (where the story is set)with her ghost happily every day.
Megan, you have given me a line to say 'Amen!' to, as usual--"For I never
tire of spending this coin". I was up late last night with Anne Bronte and goodness, what a story.
Thinking about a poem to/about characters in the book(s) I'm reading sounds intriguing.
If I write something I'll let you know!