Hushed Whispers Singing

An Exercise from My Writer’s Notebook —Personification

It’s not so much being stranded in the rain or smashed belly to belly with a whole train of friends nor even the kids, O the kids! jumping up and down — what annoys me the most is being over-fed so full that I could burst at any moment!

Or perhaps it’s the squeak squeak squeak as I shove along — I vex even me You’d think that someone would take the time lube me up so well I only whisper

And it does me no good to make friends — Some I don’t see again for weeks or months although I recognize some of their squeaks even if I cannot see where they are

It is only at night, stranded outside when a peace and calm comes over all of us

We become stillness hushed whispers singing rocking gently in the cool night air

©1998–2020 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.

This exercise in Personification comes from my notebook that I kept while working toward my Masters in 1997–98. Personification is the projection of human qualities onto nonhuman things. In this instance, I have given human qualities to a shopping cart.

I hope you’ve enjoyed another peek into my Writer’s Notebook and how I can see human qualities in inanimate objects. I will be sharing more of my works on Literary Devices in the near future.

In case you missed my first Writer’s Notebook exercise, you can see it here:

And if you’d like to read another example of a personification, check out this poem:

Lori Carlson writes poetry, fiction, articles and personal essays. Most of her topics are centred around Relationships, Spirituality, Life Lessons, Mental Health, and the LGBTQ+ community. She currently writes for Loose Words,💜POM💜 , Illumination, The Friday Fix, House of Haiku, Know Thyself, Heal Thyself, The Purple Pen, Blue Insights, a Few Words, Invisible Illness and Tempest in Under 1000