~Robert Graves
My turn to add a line to the progressive poem! Thank you to Margaret for her current shepherdship and to Irene for founding the project and propelling it along.
I love the "write two lines and the next poet picks the one they'll use" twist this year. How fun is that? That way I can suggest something nutty for one line and still give Rose something reasonable for her second option. (I kid! Don't worry, I'm not going to give her "oooo.")
I have a wild imagination, as evidenced by the fact that earlier this week, I mistook someone getting a shampoo for getting their hair cut with a laser. So usually I have to reel it in, but with the progressive poem, after I read that we happened upon a deer and her debuting fawns, my options (as I saw them) were to a) back away or b) back away. What can I say? I'm afraid I took it a little too seriously and didn't want to alarm her.
Here's what we've got so far:
Progressive Poem 2020
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.
I follow the tracks of deer and raccoon
and echo the call of a wandering loon.
A whispering breeze joins in our song
and night melts into a rose gold dawn
Deep into nature’s embrace, I fold.
Promise of spring helps shake the cold
hints of sun lightly dapple the trees
calling out the sleepy bees
Leaf-litter crackles…I pause. Twig snaps.
I gasp! Shudder! Breathe out. Relax...
as a whitetail doe comes into view.
She shifts and spotted fawns debut.
We freeze. My green eyes and her brown
meet and lock. Time slows down.
********
So here we are! Rose, your choices are:
I scatter the cakes, backing away
OR
"Namaste," I bow as I turn away
********
2020 Progressive Poem
1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch at deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff
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 at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town
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 Jessica Bigi at TBD
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan
13 comments:
Yeah. I didn't really give you a choice. ;-)
But I DO love that you brought back the cakes! I was hoping for either the cakes or the banjo! And either way, our speaker is going to leave mama and babies alone and continue on her/his journey. So we have a literal TURN in the poem just about at the midpoint. Now we get to see how the rest of the poets "bring it home." Or, if not home, to some kind of conclusion!
Hooray for the return of the cakes! Well done, Tabatha! I wonder where we'll be for my line on Friday?
I imagine everyone would like to move on and either line allows that with grace, Tabatha. Nicely done and with choice, too.
Oh, I love the way this is shaping up. Both lines are fabulous. I am glad I don't have to choose.
I'm loving that you brought back the tea cakes. Sometimes these progressive poems can become disjointed and read like a poem with too many voices, but this one is really resonating with a single voice. The choices are given us something to hope for and turn the page for.
I love both of these backing away options, but is good to see the cakes make a comeback. But I also love the namaste to the deer. I can't wait to see what comes next.
I'm pulling for the scattered cakes, but now I'm all caught up and will have to wait a bit to see what Rose chooses tomorrow. I'm loving this year's poem.
Since I met up with a deer and does on a nature trail while alone, I have been waiting to see what transpires with our narrator's journey. Tabatha, I do like your teaser of an opening and how you maneuvered your thoughts to include two ways to move away.
Oh, you should have used "Oooooooo!" Seriously though, I like your choices. Can't wait to see what happens next!
NAMASTE! Ha!!! I wouldn't be able to resist that, and the whole imagery/body language. You're so brilliant. (Of course, the scattered cakes are great, too, but... NAMSATE!!)
Ah, that Namaste sings out to me, but alas it's not my turn… I'll have to wait till tomorrow to see which road this poem will travel on.
The 2020 Progressive P is amazingly one-voiced - as Margaret said. And I oooo or ohohohoh with Ruth, having never ever (unlike Carol) stumbled upon a deer on a trail (seen across a field, etc. etc. ) but not that heart-thud moment of equal footing on wild land. This is an Earth Day Month poem to treasure, Grateful to Margaret for kicking it off & to Irene for creation & to Jama for her great round-up of these Month events. Soft footfalls to the p.f. crew stepping along the path.
Most entertaining, Tabatha--the look back at last year's gimmick, which, while fun, did not really allow for the coherence we're enjoying this year. Namaste, deer--you really can see the light in their eyes, up close, and would deer be enticed by tasty cakes? Maybe it would depend on what KIND of cakes, which is now my very most important question. As long as they're not TASTYKAKEs(tm)...
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