We Wrote a Poem

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.

  1. Kat Apel at katswhiskers
  2. Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
  3. Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
  4. Donna Smith at Mainely Write
  5. Irene Latham at Live your Poem
  6. Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
  7. Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
  8. Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
  9. Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
  10. Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
  11. Buffy Silverman
  12. Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
  13. Jone Rush MacCulloch
  14. Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
  15. Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
  16. Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
  17. Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
  18. Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
  19. Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
  20. Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
  21. Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
  22. Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
  23. Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
  24. Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
  25. Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
  26. Tim Gels at Yet There is Method
  27. Rebecca Newman
  28. Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
  29. Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
  30. 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.