Progressive Poem Day 9!

It's my turn! I've watched the progressive poem unfurling line by line and now it's time to add my line. This is the fourth year for me, a frightening and exciting opportunity that I return to year after year. It all started with meeting Irene Latham at NCTE in 2014. And then I received a Twitter invitation from Irene to sign up for a line of the progressive poem! 

This year Heidi added an additional challenge by asking us to take a moment on Day 1 to record our first impressions of how the line strikes our imagination and what we think the poem might become. Then we hid those comments (I folded down the page) from ourselves. And on our day to write, we're supposed to return to those thoughts and share them. 

Line 1 - "Nestled in her cozy bed, a seed stretched."

And my response - "There's so much to love about this line that includes some of my favorite words - cozy, bed, stretched. And nestled is a cozy word too! This seems to be a perfect poem for springtime. I hope the poem stays literal and doesn't veer into fantasy. But with 30 days ahead, who knows where our seed may be stretching."

And so it's time to add my line. I laugh about my wish that the poem stay literal. After all, in our first line the seed stretched! I wanted my line to add to the childhood fun of this nighttime gathering. I pictured sweet Jasmine and Owl at the nighttime feast. I wondered how Moon would join the group. Would Owl swoop up to bring him down? Would he slide down a moonbeam? Would Moon invite a friend to come along? Maybe he'd bring some tea and the Little Dipper. And then, thinking about Moon's playful side, I found my line: 

Nestled in her cozy bed, a seed stretched.
Oh, what wonderful dreams she had had!

Blooming in midnight moonlight, dancing with

the pulse of a thousand stars, sweet Jasmine

invented a game.

“Moon?” she called across warm, honeyed air. 

“I’m sad you’re alone; come join Owl and me.

We’re feasting on stardrops, we’ll share them with you.”
"Come find me," Moon called, hiding behind a cloud.

 And now I hand off our poetic playground to Matt. Here's the schedule for the month if you'd like to follow along:

1 Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass

2 Jane at Raincity Librarian

3 Laura at Writing the World for Kids

4 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty

5 Jan at bookseedstudio

6 Irene at Live Your Poem

7 Linda at TeacherDance

8 Janet F. at Live Your Poem

9 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page

10 Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme

11 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales

12 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink

13 Linda at A Word Edgewise

14 Heidi at my juicy little universe

15 Donna at Mainely Write

16 Sarah at Sarah Grace Tuttle

17 Ruth at There is no such thing as a Godforsaken town

18 Christie at Wondering and Wandering

19 Michelle at Michelle Kogan

20 Linda at Write Time

21 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

22 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

23 Amy at The Poem Farm

24 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

25 Kiesha at Whispers from the Ridge

26 Renee at No Water River

27 Buffy at Buffy’s Blog

28 Kat at Kat’s Whiskers

29 April at Teaching Authors

30 Doraine at Dori Reads

National Poetry Month 2018

"Give praise with friends near and far,

flinging words to the sky!"

- Amy Ludwig VanDerwater