This week let’s write a soliloquy poem, written in the first person, where your character describes her or his innermost thoughts to no one in particular. Post the results in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, where he has hosted monthly workshops for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2021, 2024 & 2025 as well as the Best of the Net Anthology in 2024. His work has appeared in The Lake, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Panoply, Tipton Poetry Journal, the Gyroscope Review and the Naugatuck River Review among others.
Living Poetry 
My Black Friday soliloquy
My brother says, “I suppose it is good for me,
to get a present occasionally
to remind me of why I dislike it so much.
I always hope it won’t be too useless a thing,
and it always turns out to be far more
of a burden and a curse than anticipated.”
Though we share very little, I have to agree;
this time of year makes me grit my teeth,
cringing at the sounds of commercial cheer.
The only thing wrapped in my house
on Black Friday is my anger on that dark day
when people rush out to fight through crowds
vying to spend their life’s blood on the latest fad
to give to the ungrateful and undeserving,
later to join all the other worn-out, unused,
unwanted waste in the landfill, and television
tells us what to buy, how to feel
and who to be, the perfect prosperous family
with piles of gifts under the perfect tree,
baking cookies for a mythical red-robed glutton.
Meanwhile, there is still Thanksgiving,
the antidote to its own grim shadow, thanks
giving, a day of gratitude for life,
for real music, true appreciation,
for the families we make and the love
we spread, the day we remember
who we are and whose we are,
and that we have the power to choose.
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Posted by bilocalalia - talking about living in two places | November 20, 2017, 1:11 PMGreat work! I especially like the lines “cringing at the sounds of commercial cheer” and “mythical red-robed glutton” and I share the sentiment.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 20, 2017, 7:55 PMI love this piece. And, like Bart, share the sentiment.
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Posted by JeanMarie | November 27, 2017, 1:44 PM