April brings even more reasons to celebrate the wonder that is poetry, one of which is participating in Irene Latham‘s annual Progressive Poem the chance to create a poem, writer by writer and line by line, over the course of the month. Matt challenged us to use only found lines, and started our journey with ones from two iconic summer songs, which led to straight to my most favorite summer song of all time: Joni Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning”.
The backstory here is that my parents live in Chelsea (the London one), and for all the summers when my children were children (i.e. not the Brooklyn living adults they are today), we would spend three weeks where we woke up to yet another memorable Chelsea morning, and a whole day of summer adventure ahead.
Here is The Progressive Poem thus far…
Endless summer; I can see for miles…
Fun, fun, fun – and the whole world smiles
No time for school- just time to play
we swim the laughin’ sea each and every day
You had only to rise, lean from your window,
the curtain opens on a portrait of today
Found Lines:
L1 The Who, ‘I Can See for Miles’ / The Beach Boys, ‘Endles Summer’
L2 The Beach Boys, ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ / Dean Martin, ‘When You’re Smiling’
L3 The Jamies, ‘Summertime, Summertime’
L4 The Doors ‘Summer’s Almost Gone’/ Led Zeppelin ‘Good Times, Bad Times’
L5 Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine “You had only to rise, lean from your window,”
L6 Joni Mitchell, “Chelsea Morning”
For our next line, visit Ruth @ thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown