2022 Progessive Poem is Here!
We left on a journey where “there were no maps!” It was filled with chatter, song, color, animals, trees, and most of all WONDER!
So many wonderful lines, inspired by poets and authors, stories and songs that have lived in the world for years and years.
With joyful voices, we add ours today!
 2022 Progressive Poem
Where they were going, there were no maps.
   Sorry! I don’t want any adventures, thank you. Not today.
Take the adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes!
   We have to go back. I forgot something.
But it’s spring, and the world is puddle-wonderful, so we’ll whistle and dance and set off on our way.
   Come with me, and you’ll be in a land of pure imagination.
Wherever you go, take your hopes, pack your dreams, and never forget – it is on our journeys that discoveries are made.
   And then it was time for singing.
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain, paint with all the colors of the wind, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky?
   Suddenly, they stopped and realized they weren’t the only ones singing.
Listen, a chattering of monkeys! Let’s smell the dawn and taste the moonlight, we’ll watch it all spread out before us.
   The moon is slicing through the sky. We whisper to the tree, tap on the trunk, imagine it feeling our sound.
Clouds of blue-winged swallows, rain from up the mountains,
   Green growing all around, and the cool splash of the fountain.
If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden,
   a bright, secret, quiet place, and rather sad;Â
   and they stepped out into the middle of it.
Their minds’ libraries and lightning bugs led them on.
   The darkwood sings, the elderhist blooms, the sky lightens; listen and you will find your way home.
The night sky would soon be painted, stars gleaming overhead, a beautiful wild curtain closing on the day.
   Mud and dusk, nettles and sky – time to cycle home in the dark.
There are no wrong roads to anywhere
   lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove.
Standing at the fence of the cottage,
  I hear the new note in the voices of the birds.
   I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the message of my heart upward.
I make up a song that goes on singing all by itself
Surfing rivers of wind way up high . . . calling zeep, zeep, zeep in the sky
blinking back the wee wonder of footprints, mouse holes, and underground maps.
   I feel like waving… like dancing around on the road
But, “There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
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Source List for the lines above:
1. The Imaginaries: Little Scraps of Larger Stories, by Emily Winfield Martin
2. The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
3. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
4. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
5. inspired by “[in Just-]” by E. E. Cummings
6. “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
7. Maybe by Kobi Yamada
8. Sarah, Plain, and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
9. inspired by Disney songs “A Whole New World” from Aladdin and “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas
10. The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor
11. adapted from Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman
12. adapted from The Magical Imperfect by Chris Baron
13. adapted from On the Same Day in March by Marilyn Singer
14. adapted from a line in Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
15. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
16. Prince Caspian by CS Lewis
17. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
18. Kate DiCamillo’s The Beatryce Prophecy
19. The Keeper of Wild Words by Brooke Smith
20. Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
21. ThePhantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
22. Dance Me to the End of Love by Leonard Cohen
23. adapted from Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
24. A quote from Terry Tempest Williams in Birdology by Sy Montgomery
25. adapted from “When I Was a Bird” by Katherine Mansfield
26. The Warbler Wave by April Pulley Sayre
27. a quote from the poem, “Reading in the Dark” from the book, “Please Bury Me In the library” by J. Patrick Lewis.
28. adapted from “So This is Nebraska” from Sure Signs: New & Selected Poems by Ted Kooser
30. adapted from “The House At Pooh Corner” by A. A. Milne
Our April Progressive Poets:
April 1 Irene at Live Your Poem
2 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
3 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
4 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
5 Buffy at Buffy Silverman
6 Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone
7 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
8 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
11 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
12 Jone at Jone Rush MacCulloch
13 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
14 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
15 Carol Labuzzetta @Â The Apples in my Orchard
16 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
17 Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken Town
18 Patricia Franz at Reverie
19 Christie at Wondering and Wandering
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Kevin at Dog Trax
22 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
23 Leigh Anne at A Day in the Life
24Â Marcie Atkins
25Â Marilyn Garcia
26Â JoAnn Early Macken
27 Janice at Salt City Verse
28 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
29 Karen Eastlund at Karen’s Got a Blog
30Â Michelle Kogan Painting, Illustration, & Writing
#PoetryFriday friends and other poetry lovers are crafting one line each day. The poem travels daily from blog to blog, (see the calendar at left) throughout the month of April.
You can follow the daily progress with the calendar links to the left. Or, check back here each Wednesday and Sunday in April for updates!
Patricia Franz is a kidlit writer and published poet. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Nice job, Patricia! What a lovely line!
(By the way, you left out my line in your list. You’re the 18th, and I was the 17th. My line came from The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera.)
APOLOGIES!! I’ve corrected it! Thank you, Ruth!
Thank YOU! 🙂
Lovely, Patricia – the singing darkwood especially! Thank you for a beautiful line.
Thank you, Robyn. Isn’t it funny how the right words come at the right time (with the right prompt)?
I’m certain our adventurers will be sad to begin their journey home, which I will nudge them to do tomorrow. Lovely line, great choice.
Right? Felt like the opportunity to turn for home… can’t wait to see this “second half” of the journey!
Oh, I did love that book by Kate DiCamillo, Patricia. That was a journey to remember, wasn’t it? Wonderful line, bringing in some light!
Oh I’m glad it resonated, Linda! She is a marvel, no?
Just catching up on a few days after time with grandkids. I just finished The Beatryce Prophecy (sigh!) so it was wonderful to meet up with Brother Edik again. Glad we are starting home now, but perhaps more surprises await.
No doubt! I loved that story!
Our poem is heading home after a long day thanks to you, Patricia. You provided a line with lovely images as well.
Thank you, Carol! Can’t wait to see what the return brings!