Progressive Poem and D is for a Dragonfly Dodoistu

Happy National Poetry Month 

Happy Poetry Friday

Happy Progressive Poem

and Happy AtoZ Challenge!

It's a busy day and month!

This whole page is in celebration of National Poetry Month and Poetry Friday.  

There are two parts to the blog today.  

First up is the Progressive Poem

and then scroll down to the AtoZ Challenge of writing to the letter D today.

*******Progressive Poem Line 4 for April 4 is HERE*******

I am so excited for this line today.  It's a beautiful April poem that's been started...

The Progressive Poem was begun by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem and is now organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche.  

The Progressive Poem is a collaborative poem with one new line written each day, with a different author adding each new line.  At the end of April, we'll have a completed poem.  No one knows what path it will take! 

Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise wrote the first line, getting us in the mood for Spring air, and Tricia Stohr-Hunt of The Miss Rumphius Effect added a visual splash of sun.  Then Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge gave us what I see as that dotted paint of almost breezy movement of sunlight spots on the beautiful spring-flowering dogwood. Ah...it's almost enough as is!  We could be done!         But no...there is more to come.

I have to admit, I picked April 4, the 4th line on purpose.  It isn't a special day of any sort, except for the fact that every day is special.  No, I decided to watch for line 2, and see if this could be a poem that could support a rhyme.  Imagine my excitement when I saw the word "air" appear!

I think air is too good a word NOT to rhyme, so...share, fair, fare, care, chair stare, stair, compare, flair, repair, impair, lair, dare, hair, hare, share, there, unfair, impair, flare, bear, bare, glare, spare, where, mare, tear, wear...what should I use?  Or should I?  Let's see...

Open an April window
let sunlight paint the air
stippling every dogwood

dappling daffodils with flair

And TAG!  You're it, Denise!  

Now it's out of my hands...will there be more rhymes?  Same pattern of rhyming?  Different? None?  Whatever it is, it will be amazing!  I don't want to wish April away, but I am very excited to see where this goes.

Tomorrow, April 5, Denise Krebs at Dare to Care will add the next line!  I hope you'll follow this progressive poem's journey throughout the month. Below is the complete list of participants, with links to the blog on which the next line will be posted.  Please, also come back here on April 14, when Janet Fagel will have her line offering posted here.

• April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
• April 2 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
• April 3 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
• April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
• April 5 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
• April 6 Buffy Silverman 
• April 7 Jone Rush MacCulloch
• April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
• April 9 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference 
• April 10 Marcie Flinchum Atkins
• April 11 Rose Capelli at Imagine the Possibilities 
• April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
• April 13 Cathy Stenquist
• April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainely Write
• April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
• April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
• April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
• April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
• April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
• April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
• April 21 Tanita Davis 
• April 22 Patricia Franz
• April 23 Ruth at There’s no such thing as a Godforsaken town
• April 24 Linda Kulp Trout 
• April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
• April 26 Michelle Kogan 
• April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
• April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
• April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
• April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors

 

*********AtoZ Challenge is HERE*********

My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

 

It's D today.  I am having fun!  Hope you are, too!  This one was a form I'd not heard of before.  I could have taken more time on the watercolor and the poem, but I'm trying not to make it my life's work.  Short and sweet (well, hopefully sweet...).

I wrote a Dodoistu* to accompany my dragonfly. 

 

Dragonfly, delicate one,

seemingly lighter than air,

darting, devilishly fast,

grabs lunch on the go.


 by Donna JT Smith ©2025
 

*The Dodoistu is a Japanese poetry form made up of four lines, with the first three lines consisting of seven syllables each. The final, fourth line has five syllables. It is unrhymed and non-metrical.

Stay tuned for E.  I'm ready and poised to post!