Summer Plans
My mom has signed me up for summer camp.
That’s twenty-one meals in the dining hall.
It’s shivering in a towel that’s always damp
and taking dares to scale the climbing wall.
It’s harnessing to be the zip line champ
contests of shooting with the basketball.
Can’t wait for campfire and those yummy s’mores
—of course we earn them all with cabin chores.
This summer I’m supposed to learn to swim
I’m scared of getting water up my nose.
Styrofoam kick-board helps me float and skim
remember, breathe and stroke and kick your toes.
The water in my eyes is nothing grim
it’s just two weeks of crawl and backstroke woes.
I’m dreading Friday when I take my test
(I’ll simply die if I don’t earn my crest!)
This holiday we’re traveling by car
we’ll even spend a night in a motel.
By daddy’s map it doesn’t look too far,
but hours of driving make me want to yell.
My sister and I get into a war
I tease her and she answers that I smell.
We eat some burgers and it’s on and on…
Such a long drive isn’t a lot of fun!
This summer I’m not going anywhere
I’ll jump the trampoline and read a book.
My dad said he might take me to the fair,
Mom said she’d prob’ly teach me how to cook.
I’ll treehouse sleep at night high in the air
at noon fish in the creek with worms and hook
on hot days water-park in my own yard
I’ll fill my days with fun – it won’t be hard!
© 2010 by Violet Nesdoly
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Though school has been over for about a month in the US, here in Canada, students are only done in the next week or so. I haven’t been in school as a student or teacher for many a year but still some internal clock of mine keeps track of school and no-more-school.
“Summer Plans” was inspired by a 2010 ottava rima prompt and challenge on Miss Rumphius Effect’s blog. I posted it in her comments there and am bringing it out again today to celebrate the end of school for Canadian kids, and the beginning of summer for everyone!
This poem is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Carol at Carol’s Cornerwhere you’ll find links to lots more poetry and poetry-related goodies.
Violet Nesdoly / poems 
mattforrest
June 21, 2013 at 5:01 am
Wow, you managed to get just about every activity a kid could want in there!
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Violet Nesdoly
June 22, 2013 at 7:44 pm
I tried. What I was also getting at is the different way we as parents plan or manage our kids’ holidays–and their imagined responses.
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Carol
June 21, 2013 at 7:00 am
Hurray for summer plans! This would be a fun poem to use as a mentor text for kids at the end of the school year. We’ve been out for a couple of weeks, so I guess I have to wait until next year!
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Violet Nesdoly
June 22, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Thank you, Carol! I love the thought of this poem actually hanging around with kids. If you ever use it, it would be fun to to hear the children’s responses.
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jama
June 21, 2013 at 7:16 am
Fun poem, bursting with great plans — nice how these activities are so universal. 🙂
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haitiruth
June 21, 2013 at 1:05 pm
Ahhh, summer! I always think I’ll accomplish so much, but August will be here before you know it, and back to school!
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Violet Nesdoly
June 22, 2013 at 7:46 pm
Isn’t that the truth! Everything takes longer than one thinks, and two months is a lot shorter that it seems at the beginning of summer.
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Michelle Heidenrich Barnes
June 21, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Makes you kind of wish summer could go on forever.
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Mary Lee
June 21, 2013 at 4:12 pm
Love the three very different scenarios!
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Violet Nesdoly
June 22, 2013 at 7:48 pm
Thanks Mary. I guess what I was also trying to imply was, maybe we don’t need to organize our kids so tightly. Maybe a summer of nothing to do would be fun… Then again, that b-word is always a danger!
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Catherine Johnson
June 22, 2013 at 5:45 am
Brilliant, Violet! We’ve had some long car rides on our holidays as kids. I’m sure dad forced us out of the car next to a freeway once we squabbled so much 😉
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Violet Nesdoly
June 22, 2013 at 7:50 pm
Oh dear. You remind me of some tense car rides where the temptation to do the same was strong. Did your dad’s solution have a lasting effect?
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Catherine Johnson
June 23, 2013 at 10:32 am
I don’t know know about lasting, but we were quiet for the rest of that trip 😉
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Linda Baie
June 23, 2013 at 6:46 am
When I talked with the class about their plans, they had so many different ones, which you’ve captured here so beautifully, Violet. I remember looking at summer, thinking of all the sweet days ahead. Your poem brought those memories back again! Thanks!
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