Everybody Loves a Swing: Poems and Thoughts About Swings
As each grandchild has come along, I have enjoyed spending time with them swinging.
We had a great swing and play center at our last home which I miss. I have many pleasant memories of the times we spent together there.
I have learned through the years that children do not really care about environments as much as they care about attention and love.
Also, children do not concern themselves about how something looks, but more about how things feel.
So here I share some of my pictures taken in swings either at our home, the park, or at a cabin we have used for family vacations.
I also discovered these great poems about swings.
The Swing
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
(1850-1894 )
How do you like to go up in a swing?
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown -
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
I believe the power of this poem is in its cadence. The sounds swing you up and down with the visuals. It is also such a timeless poem; one with which children can still relate.
Tire Swing
by Gene Fehler
My brother Aaron swung me high and hard
Toward tops of trees, until I almost flew
Into the blue of sky above our yard.
I peaked, then roller-coasted down and through
My squeals that sprinkled on the distant ground.
I tilted, lurched, then fought to grab the rope
And stop my fall. The tire spun around
With wild abandon. I could only hope
That God or Aaron (either one would do)
Could soften up the oak tree's matchbox bark
Which planned a terrifying rendezvous
Somewhere within the tire's final arc.
I closed my eyes and never found out why
The oak tree stepped aside to let me by.
The Porch Swing
Sitting on the porch swing,
Going to and fro,
Watching all the people,
Feeling breezes blow,
Smelling all the flowers,
Hearing robins sing,
I see the last of summer,
Sitting on the swing!
by Cynthia J Breedlove
A Girl on the Swing
by Chungmi Kim
She sees the mountain upside down.
With her long hair sweeping the fallen leaves she swings like a pendulum.
From the lagoon at sunset a hundred sparrows fly away.
Wishing them back she whistles softly. And downward she falls into the sky.