It’s the first Friday of August and many of us are thinking about the start of school. (Or have already started!) I’m still thinking about summer and all the sports I loved playing as a kid. So for this month’s Inkling challenge, I asked my fellow Inklings to write a poem about sports. Any sport was fair game. I suggested Soccerverse, by Liz Steinglass as a model, but everyone was free to write in any form they wanted.
Originally, I imagined writing about swimming, which is still my favorite sport, but I couldn’t get it to come together. Instead, I have a homage to many summer sports and used Douglas Florian’s “What I Love About Summer” poem as a model. (He also has wonderful celebrations of fall, winter, and spring that are not to be missed.)
Summer Sports
Staying cool
splashing in pools.
Adventuring hikes,
rides on my bike.
Frisbie flinging,
sky-high swinging.
Rafting down rivers,
rapid-soaked shivers.
Running the bases,
three-legged races.
Cartwheel turning,
superstar yearning.
Summer days of endless fun,
playing games under the sun.
Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2022
Please be sure to visit my partners in ink to see how they fielded this challenge! Molly Hogan is also hosting Poetry Friday this week.
Heidi Mordhorst @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche
Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone
Reading to the Core 
You captured the joy and sportiness of summer beautifully in your poem!
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Well lookie there! You found a cartwheel that’s a joyous counterpoint to Heidi’s “cart wheel!” And you NAILED the ending (the way Frettra Miller did in her poem)! Perfect! This needs to be submitted to Highlights or some such!
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You did it! When I was young I dreamed of being a gymnast. On a cartwheel (inside the house), I hit my foot and broke it. There went my dreams. I should write a poem about it.
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Catherine, your poem would be a hit with elementary children. The rhyming is delightful and the ending is a truth espouse by many.
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You added an element of fun with the rhythm of these lines! Love it.
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Yes, I love the simple joyful cartwheel of your poem, and the grand variety of summer sports that many of us were so lucky to enjoy.Florian’s form is a great one for this!
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I love how you revised the ending here, Catherine. It’s such a lovely carefree poem, capturing so much of the magic of childhood summer fun. Great response to the prompt!
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Thanks for the ‘Frisbie flinging’ memory, Catherine. 🙂
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