npm travel journal 11: progressive poem in rockville, md

I'm coming to you today from another geographically nearby destination, The Opposite of Indifference.  This is the blog of Tabatha Yeatts, and I stopped in to catch up with the progression of the 2014 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem.  This project invites one poet to add a line for each day in April, until a poem is completed on April 30.  The project is organized by Irene Latham and began this year with Charles Waters's line,
"Sitting on a rock, airing out my feelings to the universe..."

We're all very interested this year that the poem has gone rhyming!  In previous years I think perhaps no one thought that a "groupthink" poem could sustain that, but so far this year it's gone well--initiated by Joy Acey's second line,
"Acting like a peacock, only making matters that much worse..."

The poem continues:
"Should I trumpet like an elephant emoting to the moon,
Or just ignore the warnings written in the rune?
Those stars can’t seal my future; it’s not inscribed in stone.
The possibilities are endless! Who could have known?
Gathering courage, spiral like an eagle after prey
Then gird my wings for whirlwind gales in realms far, far away.
But, hold it! Let's get practical! What's needed before I go?"

Yesterday the poem came for its 10th line to Tabatha:
 "Time to be tactical--I'll ask my friends what I should stow."

She comments interestingly on some choices that lay before her.  I, too, would have had the urge to start a list of essentials for the proposed journey of self-discovery.  But her completion of the couplet includes not just the expected end rhyme (go/stow) but also a rather pleasing internal rhyme--practical/tactical!  Tabatha also introduces the existence of advising friends for the speaker, and that unleashes a LOT of possibilities going forward in the poem.


I also can't help thinking of the many unlikely and yet tactically practical items stowed in the knapsack of Elmer Elevator in My Father's Dragon--now there's an Imaginary Places poem calling to be written!  Tabatha's other project this month is The Directory of Imaginary Poems, a collection of poems about places that are real only in our imaginations, usually thanks to literature.

There's always something unexpected going on at Tabatha's blog, and you can follow the 2014 Progressive Poem again today at Write Time with Linda.  The general Poetry Friday roundup is with Michelle at Today's Little Ditty.