- Cathy Stenquist
- Apr 13
- 3 min read
Progressive Poem 2025
Always looking for a new poetic opportunity, I stumbled upon the 2025 KidLit Progressive Poem.
Created in 2012, by poet, Irene Latham, creating a progressive poem was a way to celebrate National Poetry Month (April) as a community of writers. Each year, Poetry Friday Friends and other poetry lovers are invited to join the fun as a poem travels daily from blog to blog, with each host adding a line, beginning April 1. Now, poet, Margaret Simon  organizes it each year.
Thank you ladies, for this lovely way of bringing together poets from all over to collaborate! I am excited and a bit nervous.... but here goes!
What I see so far:
Open an April window
let sunlight paint the air
stippling every dogwood
dappling daffodils with flair
Race to the garden
where woodpeckers drum
as hummingbirds thrum
in the blossoming Sweetgum.
Sing as you set up the easels
dabble in the paints
echo the colors of lilacs and phlox
commune without constraints.
I must say this was an interesting challenge. You would think one line would be such an easy thing to write.
Here is a bit of how I came up with my line.
Visualizing really helps me. So first, I read through the poem several times, imagining myself in my backyard.
Then I took a look at the format of the poem. Stanzas 1 and 3 are ABCB with lines 2 and 4 rhyming.
Stanza 2 takes a different approach- ABBB, with three lines rhyming.
My fellow poets seem to be setting up an alternating pattern, so I decided to follow suit.
I noticed all three stanzas begin with a call to action. Open... Race...Sing...
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This is my clue!Â
But what would my call to action be?
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Let’s see…I am a painter.
Inspired by the dappled spring light out my window, I have raced to my garden, set up my paints to a chorus of birds. I sing as my brush dips into the colors of the garden with wild abandon.
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What would I want to do next….. Hmmmm?
Lift my eyes to the birches? No
Take in the beauty before me? Too vague
I think it's time be mindful, to slow down and breathe….
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Breathe deeply the hyacinth fragrance? Not lyrical enough.
Then I remembered my beloved lilacs...
and how they make ME want to sing.
That's it!
Their fragrance is a gift that takes me away from everything and stills my heart.
Just the inspiration I needed.
This has been so much fun! Here is the poem so far, with my line added in bold.
Can't wait to see how this poem progresses.
Time to pass it onto Janet Fagel at Mainely Write to add a line. I hope this was fun for you, and that your curiosity will lead you to follow along each day!
Click on the links below to travel along with our April poem!
April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 6Â Buffy SilvermanÂ
April 7Â Jone Rush MacCulloch
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of IndifferenceÂ
April 10Â Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose Capelli at Imagine the PossibilitiesÂ
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13Â Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainely Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21Â Tanita DavisÂ
April 22Â Patricia Franz
April 23 Ruth at There’s no such thing as a Godforsaken town
April 24Â Linda Kulp TroutÂ
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26Â Michelle KoganÂ
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors
