Block City
by Robert Louis Stevenson
What are you able to build with your blocks?
Castles and palaces, temples and docks.
Rain may keep raining, and others go roam,
But I can be happy and building at home.
Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet a sea,
There I'll establish a city for me:
A Kirk and a mill and a palace beside,
And a harbour as well where my vessels may ride.
Great is the palace with pillar and wall,
A sort of a tower on the top of it all,
And steps coming down in an orderly way
To where my toy vessels lie safe in the bay.
This one is sailing and that one one is moored:
Hark to the song of the sailors on board!
And see on the steps of my palace, the kings
Coming and going with presents and things!
Now I have done with it, down let it go!
All in a moment the town is laid low.
Block upon block lying scattered and free,
What is there left of my town by the sea?
Yet as I saw it, I see it again,
The Kirk and the palace, the ships and the men,
And as long as I live and where'er I may be,
I'll always remember my town by the sea.
I am loving your illustrated poems! You are so clever....
ReplyDeleteIt just sort of happened that way..... the poems went a long with the photos and begged to be plugged in.
DeleteOh my gosh, I am so tickled to read this - you are such a kindred spirit! I've been planning on doing a similar blog post...if ever I get back to blogging. Only mine would be about haying, or playing in the hay. I've got the poem and photos picked out. Now if only the energy and time were as easy to come by.
ReplyDeleteMy crew loves building with their various building (and non-building but nevertheless being built with) things too. Block City. LOVE IT!
Well hurry it up! What could possibly be more important than blogging? :) I can't wait to see as I know yours will be truly magical. Your photos always are. Yes, kindred spirits indeed. I've known it for a long time. :D
DeleteIt is fun to see what our children come up with building or non-building. Every box that comes into this house is boxnapped and whisked away by my youngest. Transformed into something from other realms and the child with the boxes. You'd think we were moving with all of the cardboard boxes we have around here that I am NOT allowed to throw away!
You have boxnappers too! And boxes that are turned into Very Important Things. I confess that when I reach my breaking point (saturation of Very Important Things) the boxes mysteriously disappear.
DeleteI'm afraid...... shhhhhh, don't tell anyone..... that it isn't just Very Important Things in the form of boxes that disappear mysteriously. This will be our little secret.
DeleteLove the pictures...
ReplyDeleteLove the poem...
Love the post...
Oh, the memories of Lego building when I was growing up... Our floor looked like that so often. (I can't tell you how many Legos I stepped on...OUCH!...lol) My brothers, especially, were fanatics. One of my brothers still has that love for Legos and is passing it on to his four sons who love them as well. He's even got his wife liking them. :)
Some very good friends also have a bit Lego passion in their family. The last time I visited them their three-year-old son had me sit down with him to build 'pirate ships' for a 'battle'...
Thanks for bringing back such fun and fond memories. :)
I was going to write something along those lines Mindy. How I love the Lego's......... until I step on one!! Or two!! Or many!!!
DeleteNow, you know what a Kirk is? It's a church. A Scottish one. Bobby would make it a Scottish one, you know. What a lovely piece you did here - but I am so cabin-fevered and cross, all I can think of is having to pick up all those blocks -
ReplyDeleteAww man! You ruined it! I thought Kirk was from Star Trek! He looks like he could be Scottish.....
DeleteI have many hands who pick up all of those little blocks. Instead today found me on my hands and knees using a vacuum to suck up many many many gazillion pine needles as the tree went out the front door.
Speaking of....... I drove past your house this evening and I am SO GLAD you keep you lights up through the cold months. I beg of you to keep them up until spring. These dark cold nights need lights. Marci across the street has kept hers up to and I have just loved them!!
Rachel, your come-back to Kristen made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteI never read poetry, but I really enjoyed this one.
Well, I have to admit that the photos enhanced the experience!
Geek through and through. :)
DeleteI don't read poetry either. I have some children's books from when I was homeschooling that I got these from. Adult poetry...... meh. Not really my thing. My level and speed is coming up with all sorts of dorky endings to the old, Roses are Red....... :D
Ahhh...I love LEGOs and I love this poem. What I do not love is this Winter! and stepping on beloved LEGOs...especially in the dark. Makes me even more cranky than this winter.
ReplyDeleteEn how!!! Stepping on Lego's and army men! ARGH!!
DeleteThis winter has been hard but I'll take all of this cold white over a brown grey any year!
My mom and I were reminiscing the other day about the tents we used to make growing up and how elaborate we'd make them. Hours and hours and days and days we'd come up with all sorts of magic.
ReplyDeleteI need to remember when I see 'mess' that to my kids it is magic...
legos rule! well the big duplo kind rule here anyway - there are little stacks of them all around the house!
ReplyDeleteWe have those too! Tons of tons of Legos of all shapes and sizes. It is amazing what the kids come up with.
Delete