National Poetry Month, Day 23, Progressive Poem, and Happy Birthday to Me!

Today it's my turn to offer two lines to continue the Progressive Poem. Christie will choose one of them.

I picked this day, the 23rd, because it's my blog birthday. Today I've been blogging for 14 years. Let there be socially distant partying, and let there be cake!

So here's the poem 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.
I scatter the cakes, backing away
Safely exiting this strange ballet.

I continue the path that winds down to the lake.

Julieanne offered me these lines:

"Missing my breakfast for beauty's sake"

and

"A heart filled with an adventurer's ache."

I picked the first, and then I was stuck. So I did what normally do when I'm stuck while writing, whether a poem or really anything else. I went to my five senses. Looking back over the poem, there are plenty of things to see, like violets and daffodils, tracks, and of course the lovely fawns. There are lots of sounds, like the snapping twigs, the banjo (we haven't heard it yet, but it's always a possibility), the breeze. There's a chill in the air to feel. There are those cakes on the ground to taste (though I guess we're not going to get to, since they're on the ground).

See what's missing? We need a smell! So I added one. I'm sorry, Christie, I'm not letting you pick whether to have a smell or not, but you can pick what kind of smell it is!

Option 1: But what's that smell up there ahead?

Option 2: But wait, what's that delicious smell?

I know what I would make the smell be, but I don't know what Christie and all our upcoming contributors will decide to do with it. That's the thing with the Progressive Poem - you do your thing and then you stand back. Take it away, Christie!


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