And Line 4!

Donna's added it. 

Line 3 of the Progressive Poem

Robyn has added the third line!

 

April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/
April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog
April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/
April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose’s Blog
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13 Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21 Tanita at TanitasDavis.com
April 22 Patricia Franz
April 23 Ruth at There’s No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors

NPM Day 3: SJT April: Lament

Welcome, SJT friends! I'm glad to be hosting today and I'm looking forward to reading what you share. Leave your post in the comments and I will round them up. I have comment moderation enabled, so you won't see your comment right away. I'll get to it as fast as I can.

 

The topic I chose today, given that we're in the second half of Lent, is Lament. The world has plenty to lament right now, and I suggested writing a Psalm of Lament. I wrote about this topic some here during the pandemic, and I quoted Aaron Niequist saying that a third of the Psalms in the Bible are about lament, whereas zero percent of modern worship songs are. 

Here's my Psalm of Lament. I'm thinking of many people and places dear to me, but Haiti is always, always on my mind.

Lament

Lord,
our knees are sore
from praying,
our eyes are sore
from weeping.

How long, O Lord,
will
we wait

for health
for comfort
for change
for home
for justice?

How long
will
we see
the wicked prosper?

Have you seen
our trouble?
Do you care?
Have you forgotten us?

Rescue us!
We’re begging you!
Pull us from the flames,
from under the building collapsed in the earthquake,
from the waves where we’re drowning.
Save us!

Take away
the violence
the hatred
the displacement
the grief:
Give us a world full of your love,
a table where we can sit in peace and eat our meal,
a bed where we can sleep quietly at night.

Open the gate to the garden again
and let us in!

 

©Ruth Bowen Hersey

 

Patricia's post is here, and she's written a heartfelt Psalm of Lament.

 

Karen just saw the migration of the Sandhill Cranes, and she's written a beautiful post full of gratitude. Oh, Karen, I hope to see that someday, and in the meantime, thank you so much for sharing it! You're right; sometimes lament can wait! 

Linda wrote a lovely post on lament and different ways it presents itself in the world. 

Bob has struggles that he's put into his own Psalm of Lament. Praying for Kathy! 

Margaret is home with Covid. "I am the one whose branches are broken," she writes in her Psalm.

 

Fran modeled her writing on Psalm 13 and reminded us that Biblical lament always ends with coming back to deep trust in God.

 

Denise came back to praise too, in her rhyming lament, and she shares the structure: "Protest, Petition, and Praise." 

NPM Day 2

You can read line 2 of the Progressive Poem here.

 

Here is the complete list of participants. There are 3 openings left at the end of the month. If you'd like to join us and write a line, visit Margaret Simon at this link and leave her a comment.

• April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
• April 2 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
• April 3 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
• April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
• April 5 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
• April 6 Buffy Silverman 
• April 7 Jone Rush MacCulloch
• April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
• April 9 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference 
• April 10 Marcie Flinchum Atkins
• April 11 Rose Capelli at Imagine the Possibilities 
• April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
• April 13 Cathy Stenquist
• April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainely Write
• April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
• April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
• April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
• April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
• April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
• April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
• April 21 Tanita Davis 
• April 22 Patricia Franz
• April 23 Ruth at There’s no such thing as a Godforsaken town
• April 24 Linda Kulp Trout 
• April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
• April 26 Michelle Kogan 
• April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
• April 28
• April 29
• April 30

 

NPM Day 1

Today the annual Progressive Poem gets started over at Linda's blog, A Word Edgewise.