I’m happy to be participating in the Progressive Poem again this year. The Progressive Poem is an April tradition, started by Irene Latham and continued this year by Margaret Simon. Each poet adds a line as the poem builds and travels from blog to blog. This year’s poem has turned into a choose-your-own adventure, with poets offering two possible lines and allowing the next person to select which line to follow.
Liz gave me two great choices:
and a banjo passed down from my gram. (Option A)
a notebook and my best felt-tip pen. (Option B)
I immediately was drawn to the notebook and pen, because this poem is about uniting a group of writers. But who doesn’t love a banjo? And maybe I could include option B as one of my choices…. Hmmm.
I’ve returned after dithering, and will go with the banjo. Here’s the poem to date, and my two possibilities:
Sweet violets shimmy, daffodils sway
along the wiregrass path to the lake
I carry a rucksack of tasty cakes
and a banjo passed down from my gram.
My back pocket bulges with notebook and pen (Option A)
I follow the tracks of deer and raccoon (Option B)
Take it away, Kay!
Want to follow along? Here’s the schedule of where the poem has been and where it will travel to:
1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at https://kaymcgriff.edublogs.org/
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan
Happy National Poetry Month!
Playing progressive poem catch-up during my early morning sleepless in Seattle session. I’m pulling for the bulging back pocket. And off to see what Kay chose!
Belatedly re-joining the adventure! Wonderful lines, both, Buffy – off to see which was chosen! :0)
Banjo all the way! I love how it echoes wiregrass and bluegrass and strings. I’m rooting for the raccoons next.
So glad you went with the banjo, it goes with the “rucksack of tasty cakes” and the “wiregrass” path. Which path now… on my way to find out.
Oh, I’m so glad you continued the notebook and pen as an option!
Buffy, I am so excited that you kept the banjo line but now we have another option. Will our traveler follow her naturalist tendencies or literacy ones? Kay will need to ponder this.
These are both fabulous lines for me to choose! Now the hard part is deciding which one I will go with. Thanks for the great lead-in to my line.
I love the introduction of a musical instrument. And how clever of you to keep the option of the notebook and pen available.
Hi Liz. I just caught up with this game and love the diversion & quandry of two line choices.
You all, from the gung-ho get-go, are crafting a fetching, reassuring, soothing yet intriguing poem
Brava!
A clever way out of a difficult choice, Buffy! And now Kay has her work cut out for her with two more great choices. Mission accomplished.
The banjo line adds music to our poem, so there’s that hope building. I am glad you kept the pen as a choice. Thanks for playing along.
Wonderful that you slid in that ‘notebook and pen’! Perhaps Kay will, too. Yet, following tracks can become a big adventure, right? Nice, Buffy!
Well played! I knew it would be a tough choice. The banjo line was more poetic, but what poet can resist and notebook and pen?