The First Day of Summer
Tomorrow is a blank piece of paper
For me to color
However I want.
After a long sleep,
And a long stretch,
And a long, long daydream,
I can draw whatever I want.
I can use whatever color I choose.
Maybe I’ll make the sky pink and the trees blue
Just because I want to.
I’ll take my time drawing sun and sky and earth and me in the middle.
I might take all day to draw my world.
And no one will be there to tell me time is running out
Because tomorrow is a blank piece of paper
Just for me.
For more Poetry Friday visit Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference.
(c) Elizabeth Steinglass, 2013, all rights reserved
Oh that is super, Liz. How refreshing that the day is all yours and you’ve got all the time in the world to paint whatever. Love the free spirit vibe.
Thanks, Catherine.
I’ve really been enjoying the pictures you’ve been putting on facebook, especially the blue bird and the okapi.They are very fun.
I didn’t know if I should be putting them all up there. Thanks, Liz!
I love thinking of summer that way. I think that is exactly how I felt as a child. What a wonderful way to start the day, reading your poem that is. And being able to choose how to spend my time in summer: freedom!!!
Thanks, Janet.
I was really trying for the kid’s point of view.
Wonderful, Liz! Here’s to that blank sheet of paper and filling it up with wonderful things… or maybe leaving a few white spaces too. xo
Thanks, Irene. I like the idea of leaving a few white spaces.
Ah, jusyt lovely – exactly the way to think of summer: all one’s own to do with as one wishes!
It’s such a pleasure to get to make choices!
What a wonderful, indulgent, heart-slowing, soul-renewing sentiment… it also happens to have my daughter written all over it!
Thanks, Michelle!
Love this! I’m a teacher on my first day of summer vacation, trying to decide what picture I want to draw this summer!
Congratulations! Enjoy it!
“A blank piece of paper” waiting to be filled…oh, the infinite possibilities. Love this!
Thank you!
Looking for a blank paper. This is lovely. I like the use of long.
I’m glad you liked the use of long. Sometimes repetition is just the right thing. And sometimes you need a regular word and not a fancy one.
I hope you found your piece of paper!
That’s exactly how it feels! Lovely.
Thanks, Ruth.
It’s such a great thing to wake up to a day on which you get to decide everything!
Perfect! I call summer “The Long Weekend,” but I like this blank piece of paper, too! It feels SOOOooo good to be free of restrictions!
Sad but true. At the beginning it seems like the summer will be long and luxurious but it’s over way too fast–like a long weekend.
It’s just how we all feel, Liz, the summer’s blank page waiting, waiting. I like that you focused on the painting of our days.
Enjoy your blank page and all the colors that will fill it.
Ready for that myself!! Who knows what we will make with a little time to be creatively adventurous?
Have fun with your blank paper, Elizabeth! I think we all need to make time to do things “just because I want to.”
Playing a wee bit of catch-up; this month/start to summer has been so busy already! I hope you greet each day of your summer with creative abandon. Enjoyed that robin’s egg post, too – I have a couple of shells on a windowsill from earlier this spring, and the last baby from the later batch out back just left the nest yesterday. (I remember being graced with a robin’s nest on the front porch beam of my cabin at the Highlights poetry workshop where we met!)