My #NaPoWriMo Poem-A-Day project is Playing With Poetry. I am tagging along with Margaret Simon, Jone MacCulloch, Molly Hogan, and Mary Lee Hahn. We will be playing with Haikubes, Magnetic Poetry, Metaphor Dice, and Paint Chip Poetry (I raided Home Depot). I’m even throwing in nail polish color names as inspiration, just for fun! Play along, if you’d like! We are using the Twitter hashtag #playwithpoetryNPM to see what poetic mischief everyone is getting into.
A peek into my poem and process. Let’s get meta!
- So I’m not very good at following my own directions. None of my #playwithpoetry tools inspired today’s haiku! An earlier version of this poem popped up in my Facebook feed this morning, as I had shared it for Haiku Day last year. I’m on my way to Walden Pond this afternoon, so I couldn’t resist revisiting the poem!
- I originally wrote this as a haiku in 2017 and later added two additional responsive, reflective lines to create a tanka. You can read that original post here.
- Inspired by one of my poetry writing mentors, Margaret Simon, I have begun to add the word “draft” after all of my work. Another writing mentor, fellow Kindergarten teacher Kelsey Corter, noticed this change and commented to me (something to the effect of) that it made my poems feel alive, because they could grow and change. Time for this little haiku to evolve!
- Changes, all in the first line, include:
- specifically mentioning which body of water — Walden (Pond)
- more accurately referring to the “sunlight stars shimmering” ON the water rather than AT the water.
- referencing the possible source of the water in Walden Pond , which is actually a lake!
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And now for….
On April 1, the Poetry Friday family launched the 7th annual Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem organized by author/poet, Irene Latham. (Click here to learn more.) Many of us have signed up to provide a line for the 2019 poem. Author/poet Matt Forrest Esenwine kicked things off with some familiar “found” phrases merged to get us going. Today’s line comes from my poetry mentor and friend, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. You may find her line here. Our little poem is now waltzing in the waves. Participants are having fun song lyrics. I was excited to provide the 14th line on April 14th. You can read it here. I hope you’ll join us to see what happens next! Here’s the itinerary for the rest of the poem.
April
1 Matt @Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
2 Kat @Kathryn Apel
3 Kimberly @KimberlyHutmacherWrites
4 Jone @DeoWriter
5 Linda @TeacherDance
6 Tara @Going to Walden
7 Ruth @thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown
8 Mary Lee @A Year of Reading
9 Rebecca @Rebecca Herzog
10 Janet F. @Live Your Poem
11 Dani @Doing the Work that Matters
12 Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
13 Doraine @Dori Reads
14 Christie @Wondering and Wandering
15 Robyn @Life on the Deckle Edge
16 Carol @Beyond LiteracyLink
17 Amy @The Poem Farm
18 Linda @A Word Edgewise
19 Heidi @my juicy little universe
20 Buffy @Buffy’s Blog
21 Michelle @Michelle Kogan
22 Catherine @Reading to the Core
23 Penny @a penny and her jots
24 Tabatha @The Opposite of Indifference
25 Jan @Bookseestudio
26 Linda @Write Time
27 Sheila @Sheila Renfro
28 Liz @Elizabeth Steinglass
29 Irene @Live Your Poem
30 Donna @Mainely Write
Wondering and Wandering 
Christie, Thanks for naming me as a poetry mentor but the feeling is mutual. I love what your friend said about drafts being alive. I feel compelled to write about this idea today. Inspiration breeds inspiration. I love the sunlight stars shimmer line. I’m a fan of alliteration and especially to the imagery of the words. I’m glad you decided to revisit this poem today.
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