National Poetry Month, Day 21

This poem by Camille T. Dungy has been open on my desktop for a long time.


Characteristics of Life
by Camille T. Dungy

A fifth of animals without backbones could be at risk of extinction, say scientists.
-BBC Nature News 

Ask me if I speak for the snail and I will tell you
I speak for the snail.
                              speak of underneathedness
and the welcome of mosses,
                              of life that springs up,
little lives that pull back and wait for a moment.

Here's the rest of it.

Fascinated by that poem and this one of Dungy's, I bought her book, Smith Blue, with a birthday gift certificate. It arrived March 12th, and then March 19th our COVID-19 lockdown began. So I'm definitely going to read it, but I haven't yet. I try to write a post about books I get for my birthday - I usually get some - but I just haven't had a chance.

I know I'm not the only one that's having difficulty reading much during this whole strange experience, because I keep seeing other people writing about the same thing. It reminds me, like so much lately, of the earthquake; it was weeks before I could settle down and focus on anything, and then I chose very familiar books to begin with.

It's a time for speaking for the snail, I think, for getting small and quiet and still. Someone wrote an article about how the perfect book to read right now is War and Peace - I read the headline only, so I don't know what the argument is. To me it isn't a moment for sprawling narrative. What do you think?

Here are today's lines for the Progressive Poem. It's almost my turn; I add my line(s) on Thursday.

1 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at kaymcgriff
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’s 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 thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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 Big at TBD
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan at moreart4all