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April 11, 2018

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Poetry

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Progressive Poem

2018 Progressive Poem, photo of spiral staircase

For the second April in a row, I’m contributing a line, the eleventh here, to a community poem, developed like film in different darkrooms, forming a picture-poem for kids:

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.

Secure in gentle talons’ embrace, Jasmine rose
and set. She split, twining up Owl’s toes, pale

Notes: Happy Poetry Month! In 2012, Irene Latham launched the first Progressive Poem to celebrate April, poetry month, and community. Check back April 30 for the complete poem. This year’s authors are these brave souls:

April

4 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty
6 Irene at Live Your Poem
7 Linda at TeacherDance
8 Janet F. at Live Your Poem
11 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales
12 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink
13 Linda at A Word Edgewise
15 Donna at Mainely Write
16 Sarah at Sarah Grace Tuttle
18 Christie at Wondering and Wandering
19 Michelle at Michelle Kogan
20 Linda at Write Time
23 Amy at The Poem Farm
24 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
26 Renee at No Water River
27 Buffy at Buffy’s Blog
29 April at Teaching Authors
30 Doraine at Dori Reads

38 thoughts on “Progressive Poem”

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  6. It is so much fun to see what everyone does with his or her line….and I can never predict it. What will Jasmine do next? (While I wish I had been checking in each day, I must admit that it is neat to read several lines at once!) xx

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  11. “Jasmine rose and set. She split”
    Oh yes. This abruptness, the short closed sound, gives the poem a whack upside its moonshine gentility and gives Jasmine some muscle–it takes power to split and then twine up some talons, pale or otherwise, in midflight.
    Love it.

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  12. Brenda, how many hours later after we last emailed each other am I at the end of the journey. I must admit that the word pale had me stumped. I tried to imagine what you thought would work next so I started to analyze the poem. I like your alliteration stemming from Matt’s word, secure. I tossed the idea around that Jasmine split her legs and wrapped them around similar to a yoga twist. I tried to play with that. Then, I noted that Jasmine might be a seed after all which I initially thought. You will see tomorrow what I did decide would be the next line and I hope you will feel that it fits in with yours. Thanks for the lead in that was tightly woven.

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    • Can’t wait to see your line. Now that you’re done, and I won’t be influencing you unfairly, I can admit that pale was meant to weave Moon back in. And I did see Jasmine as a seed with growing to do, metaphoric or not. Mostly, I hoped to introduce action, conflict, tension and mystery. A bit ambitious perhaps. Sorry I left you hanging with pale, but the scansion required it. I also thought you could take “pale” and use “pale as” and run with a description of Jasmine. This is shaping up into a lovely story with lots of possibility.

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