Today my AtoZ Challenge offering for L may be found half way down the page, just past the Progressive Poem post by Janet Fagal –
And now from Janet Clare Fagal, Day 14's new line!
Even though I am blog-less I have participated almost every year of the Progressive Poem thanks to wonderful poet friends. Thank you, Donna, for hosting me this time!! You can find me on FB as Janet Clare, I love to write for Margaret Simon’s This Photo Wants to Be a Poem at Reflections on the Teche, but have been busy in other arenas of late. I respond to PMs and email and love to read what you all are up to!!
The Progressive Poem was begun by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem and is now organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche.
It 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!New contributor Cathy Stenquist, contributed a beautiful line, explanation and blog post filled with lovely art as well. Welcome and thank you, Cathy. I enjoyed reading about your process, thoughts and analysis. I, too, am drawn to lilacs. Though hydrangea are a favorite beginning at my grandmother’s garden so many years ago.
I was drawn to Cathy’s word “gifts”. We have so much to be grateful for especially the healing and renewing power of nature. I've added my line at the end, bolded.
Open an April window
let sunlight paint the air
stippling every dogwood
dappling daffodils with flair
Race to the garden
where woodpeckers drum
as hummingbirds thrum
in the blossoming Sweetgum.
Sing as you set up the easels
dabble in the paints
echo the colors of lilacs and phlox
commune without constraints
Breathe deeply the gift of the lilacs
Rejoice in earth’s sweet offerings
On Day 14 I offer these words and now pass this along to my dear friend, Carol Varsalona, who I am sure will add sweetness and beauty to our poem. All of my kidlit and other poetry friends inspire and guide me even when I am not being as productive or involved weekly as I would like. My heart is still in this wonderful community and I am drawn to your words, your blogs and your April projects. Thank you all for everything you contribute to the world of poetry.
Come join in following along with the Progressive Poem. Here's where the poem has been and is going:
- 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 Fagal 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
I look forward to reading more of this poem and am grateful for the experience once again! Special thank you to Margaret for all she does! And to my friend, Donna, for giving me a place to nest this time around.
AAAAAAAAA...to...ZZZZZZZZZ
The Blogging from AtoZ Challenge begins 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!
Loop Poetry is a poetry form created by Hellon. There are no restrictions on the number of
stanzas nor on the syllable count for each line. In each stanza, the last word of the first line
becomes the first word of line two, last word of line 2 becomes the first word of line 3, last
word of line 3 becomes the first word of line 4. This is followed for each stanza. The rhyme
scheme is abcb.
precious locket gleaminggleaming on its chainchain of yellow goldgold cradles love and pain pain of love's retracingretracing with the heart heart of one who's longinglonging time's restart restart the days to lingerlinger on each gazegaze to rest upon a lovelove that sweetened days days evoking laughterlaughter more than tearstears still counted treasuretreasure all the years years to grow more memoriesmemories for a locketlocked gilded goldengolden picture pocket by Donna JT Smith ©2025 
Thank you, Donna for hosting me. My comment though is the power and beauty of your poem and painting of the locket! I love them both. And I think you did a really good job on your Loop poem style.
ReplyDeleteNeed to add: (Re: Look poem format) Which I meant to say is one I have not tried and imagine can be tricky to accomplish. I love this month and wish I had the time this year to really delve into the richness of this community. We need a book about this. What a treasure trove!!! Janet Clare F.
DeleteThe Blogging AtoZ can be on any topic. You choose what you want to have as a theme. Mine is always poetry, and I usually do an image to go with it. One year it was lobster boat names, so I took pictures of boats nearby and then wrote a poem to go with each. A couple of years I focused, like this one, on poetry forms alphabetically, and had an image to accompany it. This is my first foray into watercolor. It's been challenging but fun. I could have made it easier on myself...but nooooo...
DeleteYour line flows so nicely and makes a beautiful extension of Cathy's. Love the word "rejoice" - joy again "in earth's sweet offerings"! Glad to have been able to share space with you today.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Donna. Yes, I find such peace and hope in the beauty of nature and there is so much to experience. It is diversely beautiful in a million ways. I hope I am never in too much of a hurry to ignore the joy it brings. I feel lucky that somehow I caught the rejoice bug years ago thanks to my parents. And they were so subtle about getting us to realize what mattered.
DeleteThere are so many forms! New ones are added, it seems, all the time. Sometimes the format makes it easier to write, and sometimes harder. This one seemed easier at firs, but had me furiously revising by the end!
ReplyDeleteThat loop poem is a lovely form, Donna. Your locket with your love is so poignant. "tears still counted treasure / treasure all the years"
ReplyDeleteJanet, I love this idea of grateful mindfulness in this stanza.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Denise. Inhaling the lilacs and just feeling the promise of the onset of spring (and I am waiting for this in real life for sure!) is healing. To me gratitude is a huge part of living and taking that time to really ponder all the riches that surround us. Especially to keep hope alive. Thank you for your kind words.
DeleteJanet- I couldn't wait to see where you would take the poem next and you line is such a nice compliment to my addition. So much fun. This garden we have created gets more and more vivid with each word. And Donna- Wow, what a lovely poem. This format is one I will definitely try. IT flows so beautifully. The repetition of the words makes it very lyrical. Bravo to both of you!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Cathy. Your blog with all its lovely color and info and your art/pictures is so nice!! Welcoming and as I mentioned I really enjoyed hearing your process in finding your terrific line!
DeleteGood to see you here, Janet! Great contribution. I know you have fun doing this, like I do.
ReplyDeleteHi Janice. We need to get together and catch up. I am just so busy with other choices yet things that are valuable to me. I am writing some but not at Poetry Friday which makes me really sad. I have to make that a priority. Some of my reasons are also health-related but luckily nothing serious though lots of checking since early last June. I hope we are finally done with all of that. I feel wonderful, so that is great. It would be great to catch up and I so want to spend some time in an unworkshop at Highlights with poetry friends who might want to write together. As well as a workshop I might find appealing. I am more on Fb but not very much there, either. So let's connect.
DeleteI don't think I've encountered a loop poem with a rhyme scheme before. I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a beautiful poem to go along with the painting!
ReplyDeleteJanet, thank you for helping us to "rejoice" in the amazing gift of spring. Glad you always find a way to participate! :0)
ReplyDeleteDonna, that is a lovely loop poem! (I wasn't familiar with the form - enjoyed reading yours in all its layers. And you know I love vintage-y objects that hold stories!) Good for you for showing up for your amazing project again.
Thank you, Robyn!! I love our Kidlit group of poets and am lucky to have met so many of them whom I truly feel are friends. And finding time to participate is tricky right now but so glad I did. I have enjoyed this so much over the years.
ReplyDeleteJanet