Giving Voice to the Lost: A Personification Poem About a Button’s Fate
- Mark Bird
- Mar 27
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
When I wrote my poem #Button for the #PersonifyThis prompt, I wanted to explore the often-overlooked perspective of everyday objects. Personification poems allow us to step into unexpected shoes—or in this case, a lost button—giving voice to emotions we rarely consider. This poem was my way of imagining what it feels like to be small, forgotten, and ultimately swept away by forces beyond one’s control.
The inspiration came from that universal moment of losing a button and realising it’s probably never coming back. I thought about where lost buttons go, how they might feel about being replaced, and the silent companionship they share with other discarded items. Through personification, I gave the button a personality—a mix of fear, sadness, and even a sense of camaraderie with the equally doomed pen lid. The vacuum, an unknowing villain, became a force of nature, oblivious to the tiny tragedies it causes.
#PersonifyThis is a powerful writing exercise that turns the ordinary into something profound. By breathing life into an inanimate object, I not only had fun crafting this quirky narrative but also highlighted the theme of loss in a lighthearted yet poignant way. Whether it’s a button, a pen lid, or any forgotten thing, we all sometimes wonder—who or what remembers us when we’re gone
Get involved with #PersonifyThis and share your personification poem at https://x.com/dreambeastpoems or https://bsky.app/profile/dreambeastpoems.bsky.social or https://www.instagram.com/markbirdpoet/ xxx
Crying Your Eyelets Out (#PersonifyThis)
I saw you turn that machine on
Its mad sucking sound
vibrating fear through me
the nearer it got
and although I was crying me eyelets out
I tried to scream
I’m down here
beside the chewed up pen lid
behind the slipper
beneath the sofa
But you didn’t hear
I knew then
I would never see my cardigan again
that I’d soon be replaced
with an imposter
who doesn’t even look like me
from your lost button jar
And that was it
Me and Pen Lid
were hoovered up
with discordant clunks
and the last thing we ever discussed
before we suffocated in dog hair and dust
was whether Cardigan or Pen
would miss us
Mark Bird
💡 Creative Writing and Poetry Lessons for Teachers:
This playful and poignant personification poem, "Crying Your Eyelets Out (#PersonifyThis)", is an excellent springboard for creative writing lessons that spark imagination and empathy. Students can explore the concept of personification by writing their own poems from the point of view of lost or forgotten household objects—giving voices to socks, spoons, pencil sharpeners, or toys. Writing prompts might include: “Describe the moment you were dropped and forgotten” or “What would you say if you could speak to your owner one last time?” Drama activities can bring these objects to life through monologue, mime, or ensemble performance. The poem also invites deeper themes of identity, loss, and replacement—making it a fun yet thought-provoking piece for developing narrative voice, perspective, and emotional expression through metaphor and voice. #PersonifyThis
Creative Writing, Drama and Poetry Worksheets for Teachers:
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