Progressive Poem-Still dancing!

Happy April-Poetry Month!

            It’s my turn to add a line to the second kidlitosphere Progressive Poem.  Wonderfully creative Irene Latham of Live Your Poem started the idea last year.  It’s interesting how one line, even one word, will lead writers down a path.  Last year surprised and delighted us, and this year, so far, is just as exciting.  The list of writers is on the right of this page, and we’re a third of the way through the poem.  As you can see, this year’s poem began with Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm, and tomorrow, Margaret Simon of Reflections on the Teche follows me.

          Yesterday, Carrie Finison at her StoryPatch blog spoke eloquently about the requirements for the middle of a poem, and I agree that I won’t have to find a clever ending, and I don’t have to set the tone or find a theme because we already appear to have found a sure path. 

           However, the path can be rocky in places, or take a sharp turn, and that will be my choice of geography, as Carrie says, “to expand and explore”.  Carrie also told me to give it a twirl.  I love to dance (hence my blog name), so it was fun to do just that!

            The list of poets:
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

Here is the poem with my line added:

When you listen to your footsteps

the words become music and

the rhythm that you’re rapping gets your fingers tapping, too.

Your pen starts dancing across the page

a private pirouette, a solitary samba until

smiling, you’re beguiling as your love comes shining through.

Pause a moment in your dreaming, hear the whispers

of the words, one dancer to another, saying

Listen, that’s our cue!  Mind your meter.  Find your rhyme.

Ignore the trepidation while you jitterbug and jive.

                                       Now, sending it down south to Margaret!

Here are links to more Poetry Love:

 I discovered this post shared on Facebook this week, and the blog itself is one to check out.  It's Teach With Picture Books, by Keith Schoch.  This particular post is Ten Ways To Use Poetry.  He writes two other blogs also,How To Teach A Novel and Teaching That Sticks.  You can find the links on his website.

       Mary Lee Hahn, at A Year of Reading, has been writing some gorgeous poetry this past week, using media from the Creative Commons site and teaching about proper attribution at the same time.  It's been a week of beautiful words written by her and a few of her commenters, along with learning and inspiration.  Please visit!

       To the right are the writers for Irene Latham's progressive poem during the month at Live Your Poem. So far, counting today, eight poets have added their lines; it's a path that meanders, with surprises each day!

        If you’d like to see more of the spectacular happenings occurring in April, check out Jama Rattigan’s blog, Jama’s Alphabet Soup.  I think she’ll be adding to the list as she finds out more, so keep checking in.

       And here are a few more wonderful poetry links at Tabatha Yeatts' blog,  The Opposite of Indifference.  

photo credit: Koshyk via photopin cc