2013 Progressive Poem Begins Here!

Happy National Poetry Month!  

I welcome you to the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem!

Last year, Irene Latham invited poetry-lovers to share in a progressive poem feast which she kicked off at her blog, Live Your Poem, on April 1, 2012.   Day-by-day, throughout April, different people took  turns hosting the growing poem, each adding one new line. Our poem gathered lines and stanzas, and on April 30, 2012, it was complete.  What fun it was to see the poem twist and turn and become, just as a poem by one person does.  I was fascinated each day to visit the next host...curious as to how each writer's heart would bend the meaning and sound.

Today I am very happy to have the opportunity to write the first line of the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem.  On Irene's advice, I leave my line without punctuation - open and ready to fall into the arms of Joy Acey.

The first line of this year's poem, chosen to include sound and a hint at magic and memory is:

When you listen to your footsteps

It's yours now, Joy!

Please follow along, visiting each blog as this one line grows to thirty poem breaths, a community poem written by poetry friends old and new.

2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem Schedule
Watch a poem grow day-by-day as it travels across the Kidlitosphere! April 1-30.

April

1  Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

2  Joy Acey

3  Matt Forrest Esenwine

4  Jone MacCulloch

5  Doraine Bennett

6  Gayle Krause

7  Janet Fagal

8  Julie Larios

9  Carrie Finison

10  Linda Baie

11  Margaret Simon

12  Linda Kulp

13  Catherine Johnson

14  Heidi Mordhorst

15  Mary Lee Hahn

16  Liz Steinglass

17  Renee LaTulippe

18  Penny Klostermann

19  Irene Latham

20  Buffy Silverman

21  Tabatha Yeatts

22  Laura Shovan

23  Joanna Marple

24  Katya Czaja

25  Diane Mayr

26  Robyn Hood Black

27  Ruth Hersey

28  Laura Purdie Salas

29  Denise Mortensen

30  April Halprin Wayland

To see day one of my personal April Poetry Project for this year, click here!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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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.

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!