Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Progressive Poem Starts Here





I can't believe it is April 1 already!  And that means it is the first day of the Progressive Poem.  Irene Latham who began this poem project back in 2012, has handed it over to Margaret Simon to organize.  I am so grateful to both Irene and Margaret for this wonderful April collaboration to kick of National Poetry Month.
Each day in April a different poet will add a line to this poem begun here today.  No one knows where it will go or how it will get there, but it always gets there beautifully!

I wanted senses or movement in my line to begin this journey.  So I scribbled down a number of potential lines to start us off.

And then I came up with an idea for getting the ball rolling…

I selected TWO of my lines.  We will only USE ONE of them, but let’s let the SECOND PERSON DECIDE which of my two lines they will use.  That second person just happens to be Irene Latham!  
So Irene will have the opportunity to decide which line speaks to her more, and then write the next line of the poem.

YOU don’t have to do that for your turn, but I suppose you could.  No one will ever know beforehand if you are giving a choice of two lines or not.  I just thought it would be fun to change it up on the first line!

Here’s LINE CHOICE A:   “I feel the taste of green upon my toes, my toes”

and  LINE CHOICE B:   “Sweet violets shimmy, daffodils sway”

I’m always fascinated with the direction these group endeavors take.  Where will the poem go this year?  What will you do when it comes around to you?

Ready, set... let’s have some poetic fun!  Now I’m excited to see which line Irene's pen is inclining toward...which one will be first!

“I feel the taste of green upon my toes, my toes”
OR
“Sweet violets shimmy, daffodils sway”

1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at https://kaymcgriff.edublogs.org/
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28 Jessica Big at Mainely Write     
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan

Friday, March 13, 2020

Madness is

* Edited to update: All schools are closed for the next 2 weeks in PA.  So after cleaning up the kids and getting their school clothes in the wash, I came down to visit them. My daughter works at a school, so she is off, too.  I can come and go to see them these two weeks, but I'll still mostly be upstairs.

I've hobbled upstairs to the in-law apartment for staying a bit more "germ safe" until I get more mobile.  No one's been here since my fall Jan. 9, so it's kind of a safe haven for me.  I'm canceling my PT.  Most things are really buttoning up and only essential travel, etc.  The libraries in the next county - a couple of miles away - are closed for the next 2 or more weeks.  So, being in the more "at risk" groups, I'm sequestered away for a bit.  Everyone just cover your coughs and wash your hands till we get on the other side of this Madness...

Today is the last day for voting on Round 1 of Madness! Poetry... Matt, who is hosting Poetry Friday today, has a lot about the event, so I won't go into detail here...He's also got a lot of other great stuff going on, so check in at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.

I'm a bit behind, but pleased with my student appreciation votes!  Voting closes today between 5 and 5:30 pm so hurry on over if you haven't checked it out yet.

There are some - no LOTS - of outstanding poems this round.  If you have not gone there to vote - you must!!  I'm telling you, there is no better way to get yourself, and your classroom psyched for Poetry Month in April, than to kick off with this!

Here's my bonus poem using all 64 words in the current round of competition (it is not a competition poem - I just had time on my hands and my word started me thinking this):

A Conversation

She looked at me askance,
Her doubt so real and sure,
“Are you an apparition
Or your substance solid, pure?
Are you a cloud? Are you fog?
Are you really here?
And if you are, please tell me
Are you cause for fecund fear?”

“Do you think me unbecoming
My misshapen features daunting?
Perhaps I am a mite macabre
But I’m handsome as a haunting!
You yourself aren’t much see,
You’ve nothing much to boast
You hardly warrant wrested time
I’m so aghast,” said ghost.
“May I be frank about your flaws
So many come to mind;
festooned with hair and clothing
Your skin like orange rind -
You really lack a luster
Your gait is not as spry
For mine is windswept, exuberant
And you will never fly!
I’ve pigeonholed your lifestyle,
You friends are all riffraff
And if you weren’t so sad a sack
I’d be inclined to laugh.”

“So you ARE a ghost” she whispered,
Feeling just a mite hoodwinked.
“In the daytime I won’t see you
For with darkness you are linked?”

“My labile image will cease to be
Unmoored it sails away,
But you, my dear, will be cloistered here
Contented in your way!
One might think you a martyr
For cleaving to this earth
And though you are exuberant
I think you have no worth.”

“Well, that may be my trenchant friend,
But I think that you are wrong.
My repertoire is greater than
Your decrepit little song -
Gamboling on the earth at night
Submerged in dankest places
Bearing overtures so sad and slouched,
Conspiring in their faces.”

“Well fine, I’ll leave you be now
A bevy of souls awaits…
And if I swoop on over there
I might get through those gates…”

By Donna JT Smith, 03/09/2020

October

Poetry Friday... Go enjoy some great poetry by clicking links on Poetry Friday's host Matt Forrest Esenwine's page : My poem for Oct...