Day 4 of the 2018 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem

Happy National Poetry Month!

Since April's ditty challenge won't be revealed until Friday, I'm sneaking in one of my favorite National Poetry Month activities before things get too topsy-turvy around here.

Welcome to Day 4 of the 2018 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem! 

This is the fifth year I've participated in this annual event—the brain child of poet and novelist Irene Latham. The Progressive Poem has always been one of my favorite National Poetry Month activities because it's exciting, spontaneous, fun, and because it's a community writing experience. From April 1-30, a poem travels from blog to blog, each host adding a new line daily, allowing the poem to take on a life of its own. The results are always richly layered, with a piece of every poet who takes part and the collected anticipation of everyone who has been following its journey.

If you read Heidi Mordhorst's discussion with Irene Latham and Elizabeth Steinglass about the history of the Progressive Poem, you'll know that a small twist was suggested for this year's contributors. In addition to describing our thought process for coming up with the next line, they would like us to record our initial impressions of the first line. When it's our turn to add a line, we should speak to how the trajectory of the poem, and our expectations, have adjusted over time.

Nestled in her cozy bed, a seed stretched.

What struck me right away when I read Liz's opening line were the feelings of comfort and coziness, and the relaxed way the words lolled on my tongue. The line has a lovely sense of musicality, but the rhythm is not predictable like you might expect from a rhyming poem—this will likely end up being a free verse poem. I also love the personification. It opens up all sorts of possibilities about who or what this seed could be. It might be a flower in a spring garden, but it could also be a child, a seed of an idea, a seed of a poem... perhaps some combination of all of the above!

The next two lines take us away from the action of waking up, and the anticipation of *doing* something else. Instead, it seems this little seed is not a morning person and would like to stay in her dreaming reverie a while longer.

Oh, what wonderful dreams she had had!
Blooming in midnight moonlight, dancing with 

Although one might think that Laura Purdie Salas handed me a gift, giving me clear direction for the next line, I actually found it to be more of a challenge. I wasn't ready to introduce a new character yet, so I needed to to find a line that would accommodate her lead-in as well as my own feelings about what information I want to provide to move the poem forward.

While I didn't want this dream recollection to become a distraction and go on for too long, I also didn't want to cut the dream state off too abruptly. (No one likes to be woken that way!)  As I saw it, my task was to complete Laura's thought from line 3 and maybe also focus on WHO this character is. If she's dreaming of blooming at midnight, one might presume she's hard-wired to be a night blooming flower. Not a gardener myself, I turned to Google.

There are several night blooming varieties to choose from, all with distinctive characteristics. I wanted to choose one with a personality that matched the feeling I get from this character—small like a child, sweet and fragrant, filled with wonder. I also thought about that "midnight moonlight" which led me to imagine a sky filled with stars. Given her excitement about dreams, I think our character would be star-wisher, so why not have those stars be physically represented as well? That's why I chose night blooming jasmine. Plus Jasmine is a girl's name. Bonus!

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

Night Blooming Jasmine, photo by Eran Finkle

Although I might like to have more of a say about what happens next (wouldn't we all?), my time is up. Jan Godown Annino now holds the magic wand at Bookseedstudio.


April

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 April at Teaching Authors

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 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

30 Doraine at Dori Reads

If you enjoyed this post about the Progressive Poem, you'll probably like many of the other kidlit events taking place during National Poetry Month as well. Peruse the Kidlit Events Roundup at Jama's Alphabet Soup.