Penny Parker Klostermann

Irene Latham began the Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem in 2012 as a way to celebrate National Poetry Month. Each year begins a new poem with a new line added each day of April as 30 poets pass the poem from blog to blog. Watching the poem progress is something I look forward to every year.

One thing that Irene shared in preparation is that “our aim this year is a poem for children”. I’m so glad she stressed that. I think it gave just the right amount of direction and focus for the poets. And so far, this poem is my favorite of all Kidlitosphere Progressive Poems.

Here is the poem so far.

I’m fidget, friction, ragged edges—
I sprout stories that frazzle-dazzle,
stories of castles, of fires that crackle,
with dragonwords that smoke and sizzle.

But edges sometimes need sandpaper,
like swords need stone and clouds need vapour.
So I shimmy out of my spurs and armour
facing the day as my fickle, freckled self.

I thread the crowd, wear freedom in my smile,

Linda Baie wrote Line 9 which offered all sorts of possibilities as she passed the poem to me. Today I’m adding Line 10 and will share a little bit of my thought process as I came up with the line. In our poem, I picture a child that is creative, and through creativity has had fantastical experiences. Keeping that in mind, I kept coming back to one of my favorite words in the poem given to us on Day 4 by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. That word is dragonwords. (Imagine me liking a word with dragon in it 🙂 ) When I read dragonwords, my mind went a lot of places. I wanted to keep her word alive in some form because to me it speaks of the child’s experiences which influence her/him going forward. Also, Linda suggested that one thing missing in her eyes might be a friend. I love that. But I wondered if a friend (who may or may not appear in the poem) would be human or be another sort of friend for this special child. Would the child need to speak “dragon” to a dragon or to another being with shared “dragon” experiences? Whatever my come, I had to give a nod to dragonwords whether it plays a part in the child’s ongoing adventure or not.

Here’s the poem so far with my line added.

I’m fidget, friction, ragged edges—
I sprout stories that frazzle-dazzle,
stories of castles, of fires that crackle,
with dragonwords that smoke and sizzle.

But edges sometimes need sandpaper,
like swords need stone and clouds need vapour.
So I shimmy out of my spurs and armour
facing the day as my fickle, freckled self.

I thread the crowd, wear freedom in my smile,
and warm to the coals of conversation

And now I’m passing the poem and the adventure onto Ramona at Pleasures from the Page. Happy poeting, Ramona 😀

Below is a list of participating poets with links to their blogs so that you can follow  the 2017 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. You can find the same list in my right sidebar for easy reference.

April
1 Heidi at my juicy little universe
2 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
3 Doraine at Dori Reads
4 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty
5 Diane at Random Noodling
6 Kat at Kat’s Whiskers
7 Irene at Live Your Poem
8 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
9 Linda at TeacherDance
10 Penny at a penny and her jots
11 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
12 Janet F. at Live Your Poem
13 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
14 Jan at Bookseedstudio
15 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales
16 Joy at Poetry for Kids Joy
17 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Buffy at Buffy’s Blog
19 Pat at Writer on a Horse
20 BJ at Blue Window
21 Donna at Mainely Write
22 Jone at Jone Ruch MacCulloch
23 Ruth at There is no such thing as a godforsaken town
24 Amy at The Poem Farm
25 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
26 Renee at No Water River
27 Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
28 Michelle at Michelle Kogan
29 Charles at Poetry Time
30 Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids