THE PROGRESSIVE POEM 2026 IS HERE!

Happy Easter!

Today it is my turn to move this poem forward on our journey through the land of poetry.

Thank you Tabatha for the lovely picture to help us imagine where we are going. And thank you to Irene Latham for beginning this yearly NPM tradition on Poetry Friday.

Donna Smith’s line:

“birding for words shimmering, flecked in golden gilding”

added sparkle to this journey through the Land of Poetry. She also embellished the map, inviting poets to add to it if they wish. Hardy Harbor? How about Coleridge Cove? So many possibilities, but I found myself busy enough coming up with a fifth line. Yikes! Every year it’s a challenge.

First, some punctuation.

Patricia Franz’s third line had ended in an exclamation point, so I restored it, which made “birding” the beginning of a new sentence. So I capitalized “Birding.” I hope that’s OK, Donna.

Intrigued by the introduction of birding, here’s my addition:

On my first trip to the Land of Poetry,
I saw anthologies of every color, tall as buildings.
A world of words, wonder on wings, waiting just for me!
Birding for words shimmering, flecked in golden gilding,

binoculars ready, I toured boulevards and side streets

Denise Krebs will take it from here. Bon Voyage! Feel free to punctuate my fifth line in whatever way you need to.

You can follow along at these websites:

April 1 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference

April 2 Cathy Stenquist at A Little Bit of This and That

April 3 Patricia Franz at Reverie

April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write

April 5 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse

April 6 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care

April 7 Ruth Hersey at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town

April 8 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities

April 9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche

April 10 Janet Clare Fagel at Reflections on the Teche

April 11 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry

April 12 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance

April 13 Linda Mitchell at Another Word Edgewise

April 14 Jone MacCulloch at Jone MacCulloch.com

April 15 Joyce Uglow at Storied Ink

April 16 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link

April 17 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge

April 18 Michele Kogan at More Art for All

April 19 Kim Johnson at Common Threads

April 20 Buffy Silverman at Buffy Silverman

April 21 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem

April 22 Karen Edmisten at Karen Edmisten

April 23 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe

April 24 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading

April 25 Tanita Davis at fiction, instead of lies

April 26 Sharon Roy at Pedaling Poet

April 27 Tracey Kiff-Judson at Tangles and Tails

April 28 TBD

April 29 TBD

April 30 TBD 

The Last Few Haiku Celebrating National Poetry Month

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by children’s author and awesome nature photographer Buffy Silverman Here. Thank you, Buffy, for hosting!

I was a little sad to end my National Poetry Month daily haiku project. It was fun sharing my photos and haiku on Facebook and it was indeed a hodgepodge of subjects. Here are the last few.

SPRING COLOR

Have you seen the trees?
Overnight, long gray branches
speckled green with leaves!

CONTRAILS OVER SYRACUSE

Morning passengers
criss-cross the cool morning sky--
for lunch in New York?

JANUARY 2017

March on Washington--
women looked to the future
and saw the present

AFTER "FOG" BY CARL SANDBURG

"On little cat feet"
gray fog settled in;
slept the whole morning.

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting this month.

Poetry encourages us to look at the world through different glasses. My husband and I found these glasses below at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. They made the world look like multi-faceted cut diamond.

Have a great weekend! Be sure to check in with our host, Buffy Silverman, Here.

Week four, National Poetry Month

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Ruth is hosting HERE. Thank you, Ruth for hosting.

We are at the end of National Poetry Month and I am sharing more of the haiku I have written each day and posted a first draft on Facebook. It has been a challenge, though a fun one. I’ve wracked my brain some mornings to find an interesting connection in each of these photos that might inspire a short poem.

The PROGRESSIVE POEM has taken interesting and evocative twists and turns. On 4/26 check out the newest lines by Karin Fisher-Golton Here .


SPECTRUM 1, 1953, ELLSWORTH KELLY

Juxtaposed color--
Is the first and last yellow
the same or different?

COIT TOWER IN SAN FRANCISCO

Tourist attraction.
Inside, murals depict hard times--
The Great Depression

IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE

Charlie Chaplin shows:
working from home and childcare
is easily done.

PRINT OF SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY'S LIFE'S WORK

He photographed snow,
each flake a tiny sculpture--
Quick! Before it melts!

Magritte's Masterpiece

L.A. Museum,
an icon of modern art--
No smoking allowed!

SUNDIAL

A goose in April
shows us with some certainty
that noon approaches

Happy National Poetry Month! Thank you, Ruth, for hosting.

National Poetry Month: More Haiku

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented Jone McCullough Here. Thank you, Jone, for hosting.

Also thanks to all the poets participating in the Progressive Poem.

Each week a different poet adds a line to the poem during the month of April. You can find a list of websites Here, in the margins of Margaret Simon’s website, and follow along. Thank you, Margaret, for organizing this fun event.

I’m written an haiku each day on Facebook, most with a photo. Here’s a few more.

#5 NPM

CHINATOWN CELEBRATION

Year of the Dragon
symbol of strength and courage--
good fortune to you!

Young girl playing the zither in San Francisco to celebrate the new year.

#6 NPM

green and gold brushstrokes
paint the California hills--
up close: wildflowers!

#7 NPM

BY A SIDEWALK IN PACIFICA, CA

cacti in blossom
celebrating early spring,
each in its own way

#8 NPM

TORCH LILLY

Caution when you walk,
petals exploding in flame!
"Hot poker" in bloom.

#9 NPM

THROUGH CLOUDS AT AROUND 3:30

The solar eclipse
by indirect evidence
dark sky, quiet birds.

Day # 10 NPM

February at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens

Fragrant, velvety
Evergreen Magnolia--
Kathmandu native

Day #11 NPM

CAMELLIAS IN QUEUE

Crimson showstopper!
Eager to reveal yourself--
others wait their turn.

Enjoy National Poetry Month! It’s been fun writing an haiku for each day, spending the morning thinking about words, learning a little more about flowers.

Have a great weekend!

Haiku: National Poetry Month

Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week we are hosted by our friend, author, and poet Irene Latham HERE. Thank you, Irene!

I’ve been celebrating NPM by writing a haiku and sharing it on Facebook each day. I find an haiku a day doable and it also keeps me paying attention to the beauty I see around me every day. I also have found poems in my photo library and using them to inspire a poem. Here are my first four haiku..

April 1

With springtime comes mud,
clouds, rainstorms, even snow squalls.
But then . . . daffodils.

© Janice Scully 2024

April 2

AT THE SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDENS

From South Africa
proud and tall King Proteus
on an American tour.

© Janice Scully 2024

April 3

Penning a poem
on a rainy spring morning--
question: which is which?

© Janice Scully 2024

April 4

REFRACTION

White light is a mix
of many different colors--
and so, the rainbow.

© Janice Scully 2024

I look forward to the next line of the Progressive Poem, soon to be revealed by Irene Latham on her blog Live Your Poem . Thank you Margaret Simon for organizing it. It’s really fun to see the poem develop each day. Below is a list of poets to help you follow along during National Poetry Month.

April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 2 Jone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave
April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All