I joined the collaborative poem effort for #KidLitosphere. We wrote this sweet Progressive Poem for 2021 about kindness and friendship.
I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!
Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.
I’ll spread my joy both far and wide
As a force of nature, I’ll be undenied.
Words like, “how can I help?” will bloom in the street.
A new girl alone on the playground – let’s meet, let’s meet!
We can jump-skip together in a double-dutch round.
Over, under, jump and wonder, touch the ground.
Friends can be found when you open a door.
Side by side, let’s walk through, there’s a world to explore.
We’ll hike through a forest of towering trees.
Find a stream we can follow while we bask in the breeze.
Pull off our shoes and socks, dip our toes in the icy spring water
When you’re with friends, there’s no have to or oughter.
What could we make with leaves and litter?
Let’s find pine needles, turn into vine knitters.
We’ll lie on our backs and find shapes in the sky.
We giggle together: See the bird! Now we fly?
Inspired by nature, our imaginations soar.
Follow that humpback! Here, take an oar.
Ahh! Here comes a wave — let’s hold on tight,
splashing and laughing, let’s play until night!
When the Milky Way sparkles, and the moon’s overhead,
we make a pretend campfire and tell stories we’ve read.
Some stories are true and some myths of our time.
I love all of them, but my favorite ones rhyme!
With windows to see other lives, other places
We’ll find and treasure a rainbow of faces
When you open your heart to a new friend
kindness for another kindles and ascends!
Here are the 30 poets and their posts where they showed their thinking and choices that helped create the poem above.
- Kat Apel at katswhiskers
- Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
- Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
- Donna Smith at Mainely Write
- Irene Latham at Live your Poem
- Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
- Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
- Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
- Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
- Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
- Buffy Silverman
- Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
- Jone Rush MacCulloch
- Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
- Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
- Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
- Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
- Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
- Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
- Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
- Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
- Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
- Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
- Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
- Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
- Tim Gels at Yet There is Method
- Rebecca Newman
- Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
- Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
- Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
Read about this project here on facilitator Margaret Simon’s blog. Read past poems from 2012-2020 here.