Persnickity Plum
- Cathy Stenquist
- Jan 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 17
The first box of 8 Crayola Crayons was sold in 1903. Ever since, they have become an iconic part of so many young children's lives.
Each September, I headed off to school with a new green and yellow pack and tucked it into my school desk. There was nothing like a new, fresh pack of 8 crayons to spur the imagination. I loved coloring because it was very meditative and a way to escape into my own little world for a while. I dabbed and layered the 8 colors to make new ones, pressing hard to get richer, darker colors and lightly to get softer ones.
And then the most life-changing happened....
I received a box of 64 crayons for my birthday. Not only did this 9-year-old now own every color imaginable, but the box came with a flip-open top and a built-in sharpener. Wow!
The possibilities for creation seemed endless.
Since our last Poetry Friday (read more about what Poetry Friday is HERE), I have been pondering the OLW (One Little Word) that each poet has been choosing for their focus this year. It brought to mind a tradition at Highlights where we each choose a word that rings true to us. My word this November was GRATEFUL.
Then this week, I spent some time writing brief poems about colors and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think COLOR feels like a good word for me this year for many reasons:
The drab of winter has me longing for colorful blossoms in the spring and the cheerfulness they bring.
Color makes me happy. When I am around colorful things, my imagination soars, and so does my gratitude for the beauty I see in the colors of the sky, in my grandchildren's drawings, even in the vegetables in my soup.
Color is everywhere. Since it is all around me, I cannot help but notice and think about it.
Thinking about "COLOR" this year will help me to find the color in my own world, which at times can feel a bit gray.
Inspired by Irene Latham's weekly poems, I am going to go through the box of 64 colors from my childhood this year and see what poem each one inspires.
Here is my first one:
Thank you to Jan at Bookseed Studio for hosting this week. Her post reminded me of a long-forgotten song from my childhood. Hope you will stop by.
My son and I recently spent a happy afternoon sorting and swatching all his crayons and pencil crayons, and we marveled at the incredible variety at our disposal. As my son said, in awe - "I could draw ANYTHING!" <3
Cathy, I love color and color poems. Have you read the book Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill? I inherited my Mom's classroom copy when she retired and then used it as a mentor text to write color poems with my third grade writer's circle students. Your post of uplifting and the memories it brought back for me (oh, those boxes of 64 crayons) are cherished. Thanks for sharing! I think color is a great word!
Welcome Cathy, with so-welcome Color & Light. It's a joy to see the stones of treasure words at Highlights Foundation where I found nourishment in two workshops. I'm so glad you were among those creatives so recently. Your colorful post reminds me at all the colors of the rainbow are wonderful separately, individually, but BRILLIANT together. It's sweet that you have your child-days 64-count treasure box. And your choice of "Persnickety" brought a huge smile as it was a word that adults said a lot in my childhood, helping me develop a lexicon different from other kids.
Wow! A 64-box Crayola gift! I loonngged for one as a child... And I still see Burnt Sienna and Periwinkle in my mountains and skies. :). What a great poetry goal -- to write poems for the crayons! That's a PB poetry collection in the making!
COLOR is a fabulous word. I look forward to seeing how you two play this year. Plum is a great way to begin. Oh, the persnicketyness of Ms. Plum. ha!