Greetings, Friends!
(Hope today is not too TAXing for you...;0) )
Welcome to the HALFWAY DAY for the 2019 Kidlit Progressive Poem! I always look forward to participating in this community creation among the Poetry Friday/Kidlitosphere folks, since Irene Latham started this adventure years ago. Matt Forrest Essenwine threw the first pitch of a line this year, and so far everyone's followed his "found poem" lead! (You KNOW I do love me some found poetry!) The tone has been summery and playful, and we're just now on the cusp of action.
My line's backstory: As the poem has unfolded, I've been tossing around ideas for a song lyric line I might contribute, depending on how the poem arrived at my virtual door. With the summer theme, I immediately started humming "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley, of The Eagles fame. I wasn't sure any of those lines would work. (They didn't.)
But I still wanted to go an Eagles route if possible, especially since Christie just added a Steve Miller line from "Fly Like an Eagle." (That's how our poets' minds work, right??) Nowadays I don't think of The Eagles without thinking of poetry, because two years ago, when I was fortunate enough to celebrate Lee Bennett Hopkins's induction into the Florida Arts Hall of Fame, one of the other four inductees was original Eagles band member Don Felder. He grew up in Gainesville and has four GRAMMYs under his belt. (Still with me??)
So, I thought a Don Felder song might work. His "Hotel California" came out in 1976, when I was a Florida girl of 13, making it part of the soundtrack of my teenage years. "On a dark, desert highway..." - Yeah, none of those lyrics really worked for the current purpose, 'pink champaign on ice' and all. Even out of context, I couldn't find a kid-friendly one!
Still, I wanted to find a Don Felder line.... A little internet sleuthing, and I came across a song from the soundtrack of The Slugger's Wife (1985) Remember that movie? Neither do I. Anyway, I found a comPLETEly inappropriate-for-us song called "Wild Life," co-written by Felder and Mark Jordan.
But it had a line I couldn't resist, because the day I am actually writing this post (Sunday) I have been watching a little golf. Unless you've given up contact with the outside world for Lent, you probably know there was a bit of excitment at the 18th hole of The Masters Tournament. We lived in Augusta for nine years and both my babies were born there, so it will always have an azalea-lined pull for me, especially this time of year. Enough of all that - I couldn't help myself! Here goes:
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.
Kodachrome greens, dazzling blue,
it's the chance of a lifetime,
make it last forever–ready? Set? Let's Go!
Come, we'll take a walk, the sun is shining down
Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes
Tomorrow's here. It's called today.
Gonna get me a piece o' the sky.
I wanna fly like an eagle, to the sea
and there's a tiger in my veins
Found Lines:
L1 The Who, 'I Can See for Miles' / The Beach Boys, 'Endless 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"
L7 Paul Simon, "Kodachrome," "Dazzling Blue"
L8 Dan Fogelberg, "Run for the Roses"
L9 Spice Girls, "Wannabe"/ Will Smith, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It"
L10 The Beatles, "Good Day Sunshine"
L11 The Carpenters, "Top of the World"
L12 Lin-Manuel Miranda, "Underneath the Lovely London Sky" from Mary Poppins Returns
L13 Carole King, "Hi-de-ho (That Old Sweet Roll)"
L14 Steve Miller, "Fly Like An Eagle"
L15 Don Felder, "Wild Life"
And tomorrow, (drumroll...) it will be the generous and oh-so-creative Carol to taking over at Beyond Literacy Link for the next line. Onward!
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Below is the whole schedule. Please forgive me for not making these into links; my website won't automatically convert them from the code Irene provided. But you can click back to her website at the beginning of this post and navigate them! :0)
April
1 Matt @Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
2 Kat @Kathryn Apel
3 Kimberly @KimberlyHutmacherWrites
4 Jone @DeoWriter
5 Linda @TeacherDance
6 Tara @Going to Walden
7 Ruth @thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown
8 Mary Lee @A Year of Reading
9 Rebecca @Rebecca Herzog
10 Janet F. @Live Your Poem
11 Dani @Doing the Work that Matters
12 Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
13 Doraine @Dori Reads
14 Christie @Wondering and Wandering
15 Robyn @Life on the Deckle Edge
16 Carol @Beyond LiteracyLink
17 Amy @The Poem Farm
18 Linda @A Word Edgewise
19 Heidi @my juicy little universe
20 Buffy @Buffy's Blog
21 Michelle @Michelle Kogan
22 Catherine @Reading to the Core
23 Penny @a penny and her jots
24 Tabatha @The Opposite of Indifference
25 Jan @Bookseestudio
26 Linda @Write Time
27 Sheila @Sheila Renfro
28 Liz @Elizabeth Steinglass
29 Irene @Live Your Poem
30 Donna @Mainely Write