1. What are your memories of the start of the school year?
   1. Write from the view of a child or adult, or combine the two.
   2. Did you also play truant like the poem from Robert Roxby? Share that experience and how it impacted (or not) your later life.
2. Use a childhood game as the inspiration for your poem.
   1. Use the game as an allegory or metaphor or re-write the rules.
   2. For examples, see Margaret Roxby’s “How the Rope Turns Matters Much” or Kathleen Roxby’s “GAMES OF EITHER/OR”.
   3. Or simply tell your experience of game(s) you played as a child.
3. When does Summer end? Is it a spirit or merely a season of the year? See Margaret Roxby’s “Summer Lives.”

1. What are your memories of the start of the school year?
   1. Write from the view of a child or adult, or combine the two.
   2. Did you also play truant like the poem from Robert Roxby? Share that experience and how it impacted (or not) your later life.
2. Use a childhood game as the inspiration for your poem.
   1. Use the game as an allegory or metaphor or re-write the rules.
   2. For examples, see Margaret Roxby’s “How the Rope Turns Matters Much” or Kathleen Roxby’s “GAMES OF EITHER/OR”.
   3. Or simply tell your experience of game(s) you played as a child.
3. When does Summer end? Is it a spirit or merely a season of the year? See Margaret Roxby’s “Summer Lives.”

SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021

1. This month the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurs. We now live in the Nuclear Age. Do you agree with the necessity for the use of nuclear power whether militarized or not? Why?
2. What were/are your favorite summer activities?
   1. Write a poem about one, like Margaret Roxby’s “Crack the Whip.”
   2. Retell a memory of a favorite day.
3. Do you have a favorite summer place? Why is it special to you?

SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021

1. This month the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurs. We now live in the Nuclear Age. Do you agree with the necessity for the use of nuclear power whether militarized or not? Why?
2. What were/are your favorite summer activities?
   1. Write a poem about one, like Margaret Roxby’s “Crack the Whip.”
   2. Retell a memory of a favorite day.
3. Do you have a favorite summer place? Why is it special to you?

1. Try concentrating on one of the five senses when retelling a childhood memory.
   1. Follow Kathleen Roxby’s example (Skates, July 30) and choose sound—the sound of the ball as it hits the racket, bat, backboard, etc. You get the idea.
   2. Or try one of the other senses: the taste of the ocean water and sea air while surfing (see “Pacific Sarabande” on July 23); smells while hiking in the woods, jungle, mountains; the feel of the air and your muscles as you bike; concentrate on sight while describing riding a swing. These are a few, you will have your own.
2. July 30 is International Friendship Day.
   1. Are you one of the lucky ones with a lifelong friendship? What is your secret? Any other thoughts about this friend?