
Today the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem is spending the day at my place, ~a penny and her jots~. Yes, it’s my turn to add a line to a poem that is being written
day by day,
line by line,
poet by poet.
Thanks to Irene Latham at Live Your Poem for organizing and hosting this event in celebration of National Poetry Month.
Yesterday, Renée at No Water River added her words. She gave me a nice line to work with as she was hoping to bring our words down to earth. She ended her line with “crowd hush”. Plus, she mentioned Cirque du Soleil in her post. Along the way, other poets have contributed words such as trapeze, swinging, throw, catch, soaring, exploring, and safety net. I couldn’t help but imagine the whole circus setting as I played with words that could ground our progressive poem as it has already journeyed past many pens, and has more pens in its future. I don’t have to bring our words to earth. I could send them flying back—leave them hanging. But, they don’t call me Pollyanna Penny for nothin’! I like to tidy things up; tie up loose ends; head toward that we’re-all-gonna-live-happily-ever-after ending. So, with my line, I bring us to earth with wonderment as the crowd is amazed at how well we work together as we piggyback our poet pens.
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.
Arm in arm, toe to toe, words begin to wiggle and flow
as your heart starts singing let your mind keep swinging
from life’s trapeze, like a clown on the breeze.
Swinging upside down, throw and catch new sounds–
Take a risk, try a trick; break a sweat: safety net?
Don’t check! You’re soaring and exploring,
dangle high, blood rush; spiral down, crowd hush–
limb-by-line-by-limb envision, pyramidic penned precision.
We are back down to earth. Stacked in a perfect, poetic pyramid. The crowd sees our vision because our limbs (our pens) are writing lines, and our pyramid (our poem) is precisely the kind of vision to hush the crowd. No way we could’ve stacked these lines so beautifully, and with such precision, if we didn’t have a shared vision. We are all in this circus together…yes, performing for the crowd…but mainly wanting to contribute to a finished product where our trust for each other is evident. Just like performers in Cirque du Soleil, our poem is not a solo performance. Our pens, our words, work together. And on April 30th, when we take the final bow, we will know that the last 30 days have been a special performance. We will dance back to the beginning of the poem and follow our footsteps to the end.
Was that Pollyanna-ish enough or what?? By now you’re either throwing up or applauding!!! And, hey, it’s OK if you’re throwing up because sometimes I make myself sick, too! LOL!
I am passing the poem to the our wonderful host Irene Latham.
Here are the scheduled stops for our progressive poem. You can also find the schedule in my sidebar.
April Progressive Poets
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
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