National Poetry Month: The 2014 Progressive Poem!

As a blogger and children’s writer, it’s hard to celebrate National Poetry Month while laid up recuperating from ACL reconstruction. One might think that I have all the time in the world, since I can’t really do anything – but the fact of the matter is, the 4-year-old and 7-month-old take up almost ALL my time.

I’ve only just begun to feel comfortable enough sitting at my desk to be able to work, so running and managing the nuts and bolts of my voiceover business comes before blogging, unfortunately. Hopefully, once I’m off crutches next week and can start walking and exercising and rehabbing, I’ll have more time for the fun stuff.

Today, though, is definitely fun! It’s my turn to take part in Irene Latham’s 2014 Progressive Poem! As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, a different poet adds a line to the poem each day, and by the end of April we’ll have a complete poem written by 30 different people. Talk about crowd-sourcing!

Anyway, Pat Weaver, the Writer on a Horse, added her line to the poem yesterday, and today I get to add to this literary wonder. Here’s the poem, so far, with my line added at the end:

Sitting on a rock, airing out my feelings to the universe
Acting like a peacock, only making matters that much worse;
Should I trumpet like an elephant emoting to the moon,
Or just ignore the warnings written in the rune?
Those stars can’t seal my future; it’s not inscribed in stone.
The possibilities are endless! Who could have known?
Gathering courage, spiral like an eagle after prey

Then gird my wings for whirlwind gales in realms far, far away.

If I recall correctly, I think this is the first year the poem has rhymed – which makes for a tougher assignment, of course. A writer should want to maintain the integrity of the poem without falling into a singsong kind of rhythm or letting the rhyme take over the mood or emotion of the poem itself. Hopefully I fulfilled my duty. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes – you can follow along, too, by checking in with each of the contributors, listed below!

1 Charles at Poetry Time
2 Joy at Joy Acey
3 Donna at Mainely Write
4 Anastasia at Poet! Poet!
5 Carrie at Story Patch
6 Sheila at Sheila Renfro
7 Pat at Writer on a Horse
8 Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme
9 Diane at Random Noodling
10 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
11 Linda at Write Time
12 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
13 Janet at Live Your Poem
14 Deborah at Show–Not Tell
15 Tamera at The Writer’s Whimsy
16 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
17 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
18 Irene at Live Your Poem
19 Julie at The Drift Record
20 Buffy at Buffy Silverman
21 Renee at No Water River
22 Laura at Author Amok
23 Amy at The Poem Farm
24 Linda at TeacherDance
25 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty
26 Lisa at Lisa Schroeder Books
27 Kate at Live Your Poem
28 Caroline at Caroline Starr Rose
29 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
30 Tara at A Teaching Life

Best wishes to Diane Mayr, who will add her line tomorrow!

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#MMPoetry – we have a winner!

If you haven’t checked out all the children’s poems that have been produced in just the past couple weeks, you can still log on and see all the incredible poetry that has been created this month. Just last night, the polls closed on the final matchup between J.J. Close and Samuel “The Lunchbox Doodler” Kent – and congratulations to Samuel for winning the tournament! Click the graphic and you can read both poems!

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