Welcome back to “This Photo Wants to be a Poem”. I took today’s photo on my morning walk. It was a quiet morning, but there was evidence that kids had been out playing with sidewalk chalk. Years ago I participated in a blog round-up with Betsy Hubbard of Two Writing Teachers. She called her idea “Chalkabration,” and every last Friday of the month, she encouraged teacher-bloggers to take their students outside to write chalk poems on the sidewalks. It was a favorite day for my students. I haven’t thought about it for a while, but I should definitely bring it back in the spring.
This photo qualifies as a Chalkabration. I love the simplicity of the sentence and how the child who drew it felt compelled to label the drawing. I hope you can find inspiration here, too. Write a small poem in the comments. Be sure to leave encouraging comments for other writers. Let’s have a Chalkabration!
This is a rainbow
Margaret Simon, draft 2022
that you can see, touch and tap
hop-scotch to the sky.
If you’d like to sign up for the Kidlit Progressive Poem happening in April, click here.
Reflections on the Teche 
Love the idea of Chalkabration!
I know it’s only
Sunlight on water droplets,
Yet it lifts my eye to the sky
My lips to a smile,
And my heart to delight.
Jane Heitman Healy, Draft 2/23/22
Lifting your heart to delight is my delight. Thanks for writing today!
Lovely joy-filled poem and thoughts Jane, and I like all the senses your poem opens for us, thanks!
Oh Jane, yes, the sunlight showing what is in the light, always so beautiful, yet the dark and the starshine and moonlight, so beautiful. I love all the lifting images here.
Jane – this is exactly what rainbows do, delight. As does your verse. Such a play on light, rainbows and poems!
Love this free-spirited drawing as your prompt Margaret! Thanks for sharing it and spreading this rainbow 🌈 of color into our day!
RABBIT HOLE ADVENTURE…
Rainbows remind us to
Always dream… They
Invite ideas to
Nonsensical possibilities,
Build our imaginations, and
Open our world with color,
Wonder, and joy!
Michelle Kogan
Love “nonsensical possibilities” and how an acrostic form can lead us to new and fresh word choices.
Yes to color, wonder, joy. Such great words for what they bring to our worlds. Once in June I think it was the solstice….there was a huge and wide, wide, wide rainbow as I drove home. I wanted to stay and soak it in forever. I don’t think I even though of taking a photo then and I was on a sort of highway (we don’t have the type of traffic you do in Chi-town!). And dreaming. Imagination. I think rainbows can be a metaphor for living well. All the colors there are, all the possibilities and variations that exist. Love this, Michelle.
An expansive, inspiring acrostic, Michelle!
Nonsense is so necessary sometimes, in this life…and imagination, vital. Our inner worlds need all that color and light, indeed – a thought-provoking verse, Michelle!
Chalkabration is fantastic! Let’s do it!!! I made a chalk birthday card for a little girl during the first quarantine period. Fun for both of us…
Here’s my attempt
Chalked pavement draws smiles
Memories of innocence
Best purple wishes
I love all the colors we have in chalk these days and the ones made for sidewalk art. This summer now that our sidewalk has been redone I want to go out and make some art and create a poem!! Haiku maybe is best. And ah those purple wishes!!! Purple such a deeply gorgeous color.
Love the purple wishes!
Oh, yes, Karen! And next I’d like to see a poem about what those “best purple wishes” are.
Love this haiku, Karen – best purple wishes – oh, that is marvelous. I can almost taste and smell that…
Since we have been recently inundated with rainbows at our son’s house, here is a poem based on all that goodness and fun!
Unicorn Birthday, for Laina
She’s having a party, filled with delight
all over the house a magnificent sight:
unicorns, flowers, streamers galore,
rainbow-banner greetings, birthday cards on the door.
She’s six and she’s eager, for delicious cake
friends to play with, party masks to make
rainbow-sherbet punch, rainbow-confetti cake
rainbow-themed games all for her sake!
A simple little party for just a few friends
lives for a lifetime, its joy never ends.
Janet Clare Fagal © all rights reserved
PS I’ve often said my daughter-in-law ought to go into business, she can create the best parties without a ton of fuss or stress and everyone has a great time. I stand in awe. And am glad we are there to participate and revel in the joy. My favorites were the “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”, ” Fancy Nancy High Tea”, “Frozen” and of course “Unicorn”. A friend used to tell me that people asked her to name her children’s favorite age; she always responded, “this one”…..but the memories….. and thank goodness for videos to prime those special moments we treasure so.
Janet: I love your poem, “she’s six and she’s eager” . You’ve painted a perfect picture of it. Reminding me of Bear Hunt… haven’t done that in some years now, all my grands are growing so fast. Enjoy! Also, you asked how long it took me to make my collage a week or so ago… took me one evening, tho I had been saving up materials for quite a while. It takes my mind off everything else, and that in itself makes it worthwhile.
Oh thank you, Karen. For your comments and for your info on your collage. Saving the materials, good idea. I have to get a box ready. I don’t have so many magazines, but cards and some of the catalogs could help. I am definitely eager to do some type of art adventure.
Janet, what a wonderful poem for your granddaughter. Are you making a collection? I keep meaning to get my act together and organize my grandmother poems but haven’t made the time yet. Such wonderful rainbows in this poem!
Yes, I am trying to gather and create more. I did not write one for the other birthdays but I think I can try. I have videos and millions (ok zillions) of photos. Yes, we really are blessed and capturing it in the form of our poems but more importantly all of our love. Thanks for your kind words, Margaret.
You have well captured the excitement and joy of kids’ birthday parties! Bless the moms who make those days so special.
Thanks, Jane. I consider myself so lucky to be able to participate. My girlfriend here has her spread around the country. Sad really but they manage with all the facetime and Zoom and some visits. I am blessed.
Such swirling color and delight, Janet – not to mention magic! I imagine that these glorious, joy-filled moments will stay in your granddaughter’s memory all her life. Lively quatrains and couplet – great flow and rhythm – they’re like those party streamers, waving in happy welcome. My daughter-in-law is a baker and could be in business selling her extraordinary cakes. She made a unicorn one complete with gold-dusted fondant horn for my granddaughter’s birthday a couple of years ago. These young women – just astonishing.
Oh Fran, you do have a lovely way with words. Thank you for your nice comment. Your daughter-in-law’s talent is not to be underestimated. Wonderful. Mine bought the color cake-topper that was glorious on Amazon and it really made that cake. It is a chain called Nothing But Bundt (I think) and they are yummy. I like their cupcakes better because you can have a variety of flavors. If I was younger and not busy I would try to get a franchise, they are extremely popular where my son lives. The photos are worth 1000 words, I will send a few via email to those I have emails for just to get the picture, also on my fb page I think.
Who says rainbows must look like arches
as they do through the curtain of rain and sun?
Why can’t they curve and turn
in new directions, boasting
of any beautiful color?
All the colors of the rainbow, in a flag you can drape around, in your heart. So much thanks for gorgeous color in our lives. Such beauty surrounding us and we don’t always notice it consciously or at least some of us don’t.
Why can’t they curve and turn? I love how you picked up the idea of a rainbow trail rather than an arch.
This is a mind-opener, Carol! Let’s spread those beautiful colors into all kinds of shapes!
Margaret, I love the photo and the message. Your poem is full of wonder. I love “hop-scotch to the sky”
I used the child’s message for a golden shovel.
This day of joy and hope
Is filled with promise,
A conspicuous colorful
Rainbow of life
Denise, a great idea, the Golden Shovel form. Our days filled with promise and so often there is much that gets in our way. And some days so much harder than others (thinking of sad current events) but the hope that we can seize on and the promise that awful will not prevail, keeps us following the colorful journey of life that the rainbow can represent. Your poem reminds us to focus on the positive if we can.
“Rainbow of life” is such a joyful, inclusive phrase, Denise.
Margaret,
Your sweet haiku! You capture childhood. Oh the joy of creation on the sidewalk and of course a child would want to hopscotch to the sky and imagine doing that on their rainbow. Love how you used the child’s sentence. Wonderful.
Let there be no mistake!
These streams are a rainbow
of dreams.
Even the sun agrees.
Thanks for another great picture and poem, Margaret!
No mistake, indeed.
This drove me to scroll back to the photo, and you are right! Streams of dreams. I love that “Even the sun agrees,” Rose.
What a fun invitation, and how magical Margaret, a “hop-scotch to the sky!”
Margaret, thanks for this inspirational photo – and hopscotch to the sky, so perfect!
I was feeling sort of acrostic, so…
The Artist’s Inner Dialogue
Today is a
Happy day
I feel it as I
Skip along the sidewalk
I feel like making
Something beautiful with
All kinds of colors
Red orange yellow green blue
And my favorites,
Indigo and violet…
Now I leave my happy beautifulness
By way of chalkdust
Or maybe fairydust
Where you can find it, too
well done, Fran! This is “happy beautifulness” all over!
[…] Photo: Margaret Simon. “This Photo Wants to be a Poem,” Reflections on the Teche. […]