National Poetry Month 2013: Amok with Irene's Progressive Poem

I've got drama on my mind.

It was a dramatic week at our house. My son (16) jetted off to California for the VEX Robotics World Championships. It was exciting to watch his team's robot battle on Livestream.

My daughter (13) came down with stomach flu. During her school musical's opening week. I had one unhappy stage manager on  my hands. But she battled through and made it to opening night. The show must go on!

And the show must also go on in Irene Latham's 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. We wouldn't have a progressive poem without Internet and blogging technology, so it's a perfect feature for today's "Welcome to the TechnoVerse" post.

In just its second year, the poem has become a National Poetry Month tradition. It starts with a single line on April 1. Each day, a poet/blogger loans his or her talent by coming up with the next line.

I love how this year's group effort began with writing as a form of dance. Soon, we were full-on "Dancing with the Poets" (ballet, samba, tap and jitterbug made appearances). Then, we made a stop at "The Kidlitosphere's Got Talent," with our protagonist poet balancing in a death-defying trapeze act.

Baltimore Ravens' superstar Jacoby Jones is on this season of
"Dancing with the Stars." From sbnation.com

According to several sites (here's one), the idiom "the show must go on" originated with the circus circa 1941. (Wasn't there a clown in stanza three of our poem?) Ringmasters would say the phrase to a big top audience if the lions got loose. Comforting, I'm sure.

In the progressive poem, we last saw our dancing, clowning, daredevil of a speaker recovering from a tumble, learning from a mistake. ("All part of the act," Tabatha wrote in yesterday's line. Spoken like a true theater person.)

I'd like to see our speaker back on her nimble feet, ready to perform. With one last thank you to Irene and the other progressive poets, here is the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem as of 4/22:

When you listen to your footsteps 
the words become music and 
the rhythm that you’re rapping gets your fingers tapping, too. 
Your pen starts dancing across the page 
a private pirouette, a solitary samba until 
smiling, you’re beguiling as your love comes shining through. 

Pause a moment in your dreaming, hear the whispers 
of the words, one dancer to another, saying 
Listen, that’s our cue! Mind your meter. Find your rhyme. 
Ignore the trepidation while you jitterbug and jive. 
Arm in arm, toe to toe, words begin to wiggle and flow 
as your heart starts singing let your mind keep swinging 

from life’s trapeze, like a clown on the breeze. 
Swinging upside down, throw and catch new sounds– 
Take a risk, try a trick; break a sweat: safety net? 
Don’t check! You’re soaring and exploring, 
dangle high, blood rush; spiral down, crowd hush– 
limb-by-line-by-limb envision, pyramidic penned precision. 

And if you should topple, if you should flop 
if your meter takes a beating; your rhyme runs out of steam— 
know this tumbling and fumbling is all part of the act,
so get up with a flourish. Your pencil's still intact.

A list of stops on the 2013 Progressive Poem's tour of the blogosphere is posted here at Author Amok. You'll see the full roster of poets on the right. I've had a great time following along: Not only each new line, but also reading what each blogging poet has to say about contributing to a group verse.

Tomorrow in the TechnoVerse, Poetry Friday blogger Diane Mayr (of Random Noodling) tells us about Archive.Org.

And...Curtain!

From PBS.org