Summer Daze – in poetry, prose and photos

Any photo can inspire a memory

Any memory can inspire a story

 

 

 

     With each passing day of spring, days grow a little longer, the sun shines a little brighter and gardens bloom in gay profusion.  Birdsong wakes me every morning, and soft breezes beckon me outdoors.  The gardenia-perfumed air kisses my face with cool, fragrant delight.  Oh my!  I could stay out here forever!

     But instead, I think I’ll go a’wandering down some new lane and create memories to warm me through my winters.  Or provide refreshing coolness in the coming summer heat.  I love to walk through neighborhoods I’ve never visited before, or discover hidden paths through a leafy bit of woods.  And if the day’s too hot to walk, just climb into the car and go exploring.

     I remember that day years ago when my husband and I, newly met, rode out together on a lovely spring morning to discover new places and create our own memories—and we happened upon a picturesque little village.

      Soda Shop Stop

                                                                            

It was a small soda shop

in a small little town

where we’d stopped to watch a fair—

a festival scene

on a grassy green—

a party in ginger-ale air.

In that small soda shop

with its bent iron chairs

sitting outside by the door

we stopped

in the heat of the moment

to rest a moment or more.

In the heat of the moment

we stopped

to share a cone

of chocolate ice cream

mounded round as a dream

and dripping its own

tongue-licking cool cream.

Which I licked with you

making swirls of my own

with my tongue glistening pink on that coldness—

for to lick your skin would be a sin                                                    

in public—

condemned for boldness.

                        ~ Elizabeth Guy

 

“Ice-cream is exquisite.  What a pity it isn’t illegal.”

~Voltaire

 

     Don’t you love to conjure up old favorite memories?  I certainly do!  And when I couple them with photos taken on along the many journeys I have made, the experiences seem all too new again.  Exciting with their promise, bittersweet with their completion.  Satisfying, nonetheless.

     All this and springtime too!

Every photo I have brings back a story.

What stories do your photos tell?

Next week…..            

I’ll be on vacation—and eating ice cream!  And making new memories.

Back in two weeks...

                      

 Mouthful of ice cream

Cool green grass beneath bare feet

Smiling summer days

Also, visit my co-author's blog at http://hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com

See his ten-part series on photo prompts to inspire writing at http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/

And Don’t Miss…

            English teacher Mara Dukats and writer-photographer Cynthia Staples’ poems “white on white” and “The Absence of Color.” They’re in Part Four of Hank Kellner’s  twelve-part series THE POWER OF PHOTOS TO INSPIRE WRITING at the Creativity Portal  website http://gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/hank-kellner/using-poems-and-photos-to-inspire-writing-part-4/,  as well as Anna J. Small’s writing assignment in "Viewing and Writing about Photos from Around the World"

            Also, read more about Reflect and Write in the SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL http://www.slj.com/2013/03/curriculum-connections/meeting-the-ccss-through-poetry-professional-shelf/

Another Helpful Source for Inspiration

For more photos and information not included in this blog, please visit http://www.prufrock.com/Reflect-and-Write-P1752.aspx. Reflect and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations; either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a “Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources” section, and more. Includes CD with photos and poems from the book. Reflect and Write: 300 Poems and Photos to Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner and Elizabeth Guy (Prufrock Press, 2013), 153 pages, $24.95.

Childhood Dreams and Growing Up - in photos, prose & poetry

If one picture is worth a thousand words,

can one picture inspire a thousand words?

     Well, this photo by Hank Kellner inspired at least forty words in poem form that tumbled out like the rippling tresses cascading down this little girl’s back.

     Little Girls

Temper tantrums

Goofy grins

Ballet shoes and hairbows

Pom-poms

Books

and Barbie dolls

That’s what girls are made of

Riding lessons

Dancing classes

Swimming lessons, too

Cheerleading sessions

Girl Scouts                              

That’s what some girls do

Then they discover boys

The end

                                ~ Elizabeth Guy

“If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!”
― J.M. Barrie

     Childhood is all too brief, at least from the standpoint of parents.  But I remember as a child it seemed to stretch all too long, and I was always anxious for it to end.  I wanted to grow up.  I wanted to be tall, not small.  I wanted to know everything, like grownups did.  Boy!  Was I in for a surprise! 

     One of life’s great discoveries upon achieving “adulthood” was that we not only didn’t have all the answers, we didn’t even seem adequately prepared for the “test.”  There was so much more to be learned – a whole lifetime of learning ahead.  What could be more exciting? 

     And even though I’m in my eighth decade, I’m still not quite finished growing up.  There are many more trees for me climb.  You really can’t beat the view from up there.

What trees have you climbed lately?

  Coming next week...

Table Set in a Garden - painting by Pierre Bonnard, c.1908

 

Also, visit my co-author's blog at http://hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com

See his ten-part series on photo prompts to inspire writing at http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/

And Don’t Miss…

            English teacher Mara Dukats and writer-photographer Cynthia Staples’ poems “white on white” and “The Absence of Color.” They’re in Part Four of Hank Kellner’s  twelve-part series THE POWER OF PHOTOS TO INSPIRE WRITING at the Creativity Portal  website http://gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/hank-kellner/using-poems-and-photos-to-inspire-writing-part-4/,  as well as Anna J. Small’s writing assignment in "Viewing and Writing about Photos from Around the World"

            Also, read more about Reflect and Write in the SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL http://www.slj.com/2013/03/curriculum-connections/meeting-the-ccss-through-poetry-professional-shelf/

Another Helpful Source for Inspiration

For more photos and information not included in this blog, please visit http://www.prufrock.com/Reflect-and-Write-P1752.aspx. Reflect and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations; either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a “Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources” section, and more. Includes CD with photos and poems from the book. Reflect and Write: 300 Poems and Photos to Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner and Elizabeth Guy (Prufrock Press, 2013), 153 pages, $24.95.

A Photo, a Poem ~ and a happy chair!

If one picture is worth a thousand words,

can one picture inspire a thousand words?

Oh, easily!  In fact, I think a picture could inspire a thousand words more readily than a question would.  Pictures by their very nature stimulate the imagination.  They provoke a response in any language.  They provide an instant connection.  They pop!

When I’m searching for inspiration for a poem, I often find it in photographs.  In fact when I’m not searching for inspiration, but am trying instead to sort my boxes of family photos which stretch back for generations, so many writing ideas begin swirling into my head I could never put them all down on paper.  My own photos have volumes to tell.  It’s exhausting.

Sometimes it’s simpler to focus on someone else’s photos and pick one that “speaks” to me—like this one from Hank Kellner’s collection.  I came upon it unexpectedly there among so many other street scenes.  As if by magic then, the photo just spoke a poem right onto the page.

Imagine walking down a city street, people passing by without eye contact, everyone intent upon their own business.  One could feel almost invisible on a busy city street.  And then you come across something as whimsical and charming as this chair.  It smiles at you as if it were a friend.  How could I possibly resist it?  Why would I want to?

"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin: what else does a man need to be happy?"            ~Albert Einstein

A Happy Chair 

Behold, a happy chair!

Were I to rest upon it

Surely warmth would fill me.

Surely all my cares

Would disappear

Dissolve into the smile

That seeped right through me.

I could be a little child

Again

If only for little while

And then,

Restored, renewed, refreshed

I could continue on.

            ~Elizabeth Guy

When I’m feeling down, or tired, or worried – or just plain old – I think about that happy chair.  And the smile does indeed seep right through me. 

Do you have a picture that always brings a smile to your face?

Coming next week...                                   

“The Magpie” by Monet inspires a poem

Also, visit my co-author's blog at http://hank-englisheducation.blogspot.com.  See his ten-part series on photo prompts to inspire writing at http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/kellner/

  

And Don’t Miss…

             English teacher Mara Dukats and writer-photographer Cynthia Staples’ poems “white on white” and “The Absence of Color.” They’re in Part Four of Hank Kellner’s  twelve-part series THE POWER OF PHOTOS TO INSPIRE WRITING at the Creativity Portal  website http://gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/hank-kellner/using-poems-and-photos-to-inspire-writing-part-4/,  as well as Anna J. Small’s writing assignment in "Viewing and Writing about Photos from Around the World"

            

           Read more about Reflect and Write in the SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL http://www.slj.com/2013/03/curriculum-connections/meeting-the-ccss-through-poetry-professional-shelf/

                        A Helpful Source for Inspiration

For more photos and information not included in this blog, please visit http://www.prufrock.com/Reflect-and-Write-P1752.aspx. Reflect and Write contains more than 300 poems and photos; keywords; quotations; either “Inspiration” or “Challenge” prompts; a “Themes to Explore” section; a “Twelve Ways to Inspire Your Students” section; a special “Internet Resources” section, and more. Includes CD with photos and poems from the book. Reflect and Write: 300 Poems and Photos to Inspire Writing by Hank Kellner and Elizabeth Guy (Prufrock Press, 2013), 153 pages, $24.95.