Wednesday, April 18, 2012

2012 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem


Today I am excited to host the 2012 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem, brainchild of Irene Latham at Live Your Poem...  Thank you, Irene, for inviting us all to a poem party!

This poem has been growing each day, one line at a time, traveling blog-to-blog, and deepening with each visit.  You can read the whole lineup of contributors in my sidebar (through the end of this month) or over at Irene's first post which introduced and kicked off this project. Each line was written by a different blogger who hosted the poem on his or her writing day. I only wrote a million lines before I finally picked one.

Having seen line breaks change as this poem moves from blog-to-blog, I did the same, knowing and expecting that it will change again...

If you are reading this
you must be hungry
Kick off your silver slippers
Come sit with us a spell

A hanky, here, now dry your tears
And fill your glass with wine
Now, pour. The parchment has secrets
Smells of a Moroccan market spill out.

You have come to the right place, just breathe in.
Honey, mint, cinnamon, sorrow. Now, breathe out
last week's dreams. Take a wish from the jar.
Inside, deep inside, is the answer...

Unfold it, and let us riddle it together,


...Strains of a waltz. How do frozen fingers play?
How do fennel, ginger, saffron blend in the tangine?
Like broken strangers bound by time, they sisterdance...

their veils of sorrow encircle, embrace

Feed your heart with waltzes and spices.



The last line is mine, and now I pass the wish jar to Lori at Habitual Rhymer where she will continue the unfolding.

If you have not yet taken a peek into Laura Shovan's notebook to see the evolution of her poem, April, please go and read her post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  There is a giveaway on that post for her beautiful chapbook, MOUNTAIN, LOG, SALT, AND STONE.  Names will be drawn tomorrow!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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9 comments:

  1. Oh, your line is perfect...it knits the poem together beautifully and lifts the spirit of it somehow. Well done!

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  2. What Tara said! We've moved away now from the sorrows to a lighter place... thank you, Amy, for this loveliness.

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  3. A continual unfolding and shifting of light... loving this "experiment"! Great job "word-herding," Amy.

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  4. Go, Amy! Way to tie everything together!

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  5. What Robyn said about word-herding! Yay, it's coming around, tying up loose ends, perhaps the seeds of a resolution have been planted... Lovely!

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  6. P.S. Now if the next person writes "And puppy dog tails and everything nices" we'll be back to kidlit!!! :)

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  7. Now you've given the first piece of advice, just like a group would. I wonder what other wise words from women will appear! Terrific, Amy!

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  8. "Feed your heart..." So lovely! I love that the answer for the broken stranger begins with "Feed your heart..." I like, Linda cannot wait to see what other words of wisdom will follow. :)

    -Natalie

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