npm19: all of the above 24/25/26

26
Wow, after writing choosing my Progressive Poem line and sinking deep into Spring Break last week, it was hard to remember that April was still NPMing with a vengeance!  I missed a few days because, you know, LIFE (although I am now pleased to report that our 16yo has chosen a new school which we hope will do more of the academic support that we've been doing ourselves & fie on my public school system for failing to serve his needs & thanks for listening)--but here we are again addressing
all of the above.

 It really mattered at the beginning of the month when I codified the range of topics (also describable as "distraction moves") in the badge you see here, because I've been playing with these four ideas all month.  Below in this post you can find yesterday's poem, which plays with choice c).  I've tried golden shovels, acrostics, lots of free verse forms, and some funky "silver shovels" where the striking line sits at the left margin.  I've done some poetry play a la Mary Lee & Co with Metaphor Dice, the Random Word Generator, and the postings of other bloggers.

My topics have included our earth and the climate crisis; spring, obviously; the richly inspiring last name of a person I randomly met at school (and who was up for the amusement of being written about); and of course a little about my own states of being.  In other words, this is all working out just as I didn't really plan it, my National Poetry Month UnProject.  Just as well, because there's a fair amount of pain flying around.

In the face of unprecedented assaults on planet Earth, what good is poetry?

Constant hot-hued jangling of earthly spring

keeps me in a state of emergency, lovestruck

and full of desperate rescue intention,

uneasy truth of Eden hovering above:

There is no haven in heavens above.

What good is poetry, what action can my intention

achieve? I dig and strike and strike again, and struck

by words I speak, I spread this spring.

Now I'm late for school, where yesterday dandelions became "alien sheep grazing yellow in the grass," and though it be little, the power of poetry was fierce once again in the hearts of the children for whom we have to save this planet.  Our host today is Carol at Beyond Literacy Link; graze on over to the goodness that grows.

24/25

my
genes wear me out.
erring on the side of risk I
always go too far. I'm lured
in by a hundred wild ideas,
ten good projects the
tithe I pay
on
any given day.