Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

“The Boatloads”

Dan Albergotti,

Things to do in the belly of the whale
Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days.
Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires
with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals.
Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices.
Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way
for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review
each of your life's ten million choices. Endure moments
of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you.
Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound
of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart.
Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope, 
where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all
the things you did and could have done. Remember
treading water in the center of the still night sea, your toes
pointing again and again down, down into the black depths.

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

"Sometimes Life Ain't Always a Hoot"

Tony Medina 

Sometimes life ain't 
always a hoot
or a holler

But if you manage
to give it
a bother

Even if you miss
your mother 
or don't like
your father

There'll be better days
up ahead

A whole mess of
happenin' days
up ahead

you can sit and sulk
suck your teeth
and sigh

Or love and laugh
and live life
by and by

Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

“Nature Writing”

Henry David Thoreau

Not until we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves...

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

"Dirty Face"

Shel Silverstein 

Where did you get such a dirty face,
My darling dirty-faced child?

I got it from crawling along in the dirt
And biting two buttons off Jeremy’s shirt.
I got it from chewing the roots of a rose
And digging for clams in the yard with my nose.
I got it from peeking into a dark cave
And painting myself like a Navajo brave.
I got it from playing with coal in the bin
And signing my name in cement with my chin.
I got it from rolling around on the rug
And giving the horrible dog a big hug.
I got it from finding a lost silver mine
And eating sweet blackberries right off the vine.
I got it from ice cream and wrestling and tears
And from having more fun than you’ve had in years.

Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

“The Facts of Life”

Padraig O. Tuama

That you were born
and you will die.

That you will sometimes love enough
and sometimes not.

That you will lie
if only to yourself.

That you will get tired.

That you will learn most from the situations
you did not choose.

That there will be some things that move you
more than you can say.

That you will live
that you must be loved.

That you will avoid questions most urgently in need of
your attention.

That you began as the fusion of a sperm and an egg
of two people who once were strangers
and may well still be.

That life isn’t fair.
That life is sometimes good
and sometimes better than good.

That life is often not so good.

That life is real
and if you can survive it, well,
survive it well
with love
and art
and meaning given
where meaning’s scarce.

That you will learn to live with regret.
That you will learn to live with respect.

That the structures that constrict you
may not be permanently constraining.

That you will probably be okay.

That you must accept change
before you die
but you will die anyway.

So you might as well live
and you might as well love.
You might as well love.
You might as well love.

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

"Ode to My Shoes"

Francisco X. Alarcon

my shoes
rest all night
under my bed

tired
they stretch
and loosen
their laces

wide open
they fall asleep
and dream
of walking

they revisit
the places
they went to
during the day

and wake up
cheerful
relaxed
so soft

Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

“A Patch of Old Snow”

Robert Frost

There's a patch of old snow in a corner
     That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
     Had brought to rest.

It is speckled with grime as if
     Small print overspread it,
The news of a day I’ve forgotten—
     If I ever read it.

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

"Earth Day"

Jane Yolan

I am the Earth
And the Earth is me.
Each blade of grass,
Each honey tree,
Each bit of mud,
And stick and stone
Is blood and muscle,
Skin and bone.

And just as I
Need every bit
Of me to make
My body fit,
So Earth needs
Grass and stone and tree
And things that grow here
Naturally.

That’s why we
Celebrate this day.
That’s why across
The world we say:
As long as life,
As dear, as free,
I am the Earth
And the Earth is me. 

Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

“Lighthouse Keeping”

Kay Ryan 

Seas pleat
winds keen 
fogs deepen 
ships lean no 
doubt, and 
the lighthouse 
keeper keeps 
a light for 
those left out. 
It is intimate 
and remote both 
for the keeper 
and those afloat. 

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

"Daddy Fell into the Pond"

Alfred Noyes 

Everyone grumbled. The sky was grey.
We had nothing to do and nothing to say.
We were nearing the end of a dismal day,
And there seemed to be nothing beyond, THEN
Daddy fell into the pond!

And everyone's face grew merry and bright,
And Timothy danced for sheer delight.
"Give me the camera, quick, oh quick!
He's crawling out of the duckweed." Click!

Then the gardener suddenly slapped his knee,
And doubled up, shaking silently,
And the ducks all quacked as if they were daft
And it sounded as if the old drake laughed.

O' there wasn't a thing that didn't respond WHEN
Daddy fell into the pond!

Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

“The Peace of Wild Things”

Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

"Waiting at the Window"

A.A. Milne

 

These are my two drops of rain
Waiting on the window-pane

I am waiting here to see
Which the winning one will be.

Both of them have different names.
One is John and one is James.

All the best and all the worst
Comes from which of them is first.

James had just begun to ooze.
He's the one I want to lose.

John is waiting to begin.
He's the one I want to win.

James is going slowly on.
Something sort of sticks to John.

John is moving off at last.
James is going pretty fast.

John is rushing down the pane.
James is going slow again.

James has met a sort of smear.
John is getting very near.

Is he going fast enough?
(James has found a piece of fluff.)

John has hurried quickly by.
(James was talking to a fly.)

John is there, and John has won!
Look told you! Here's the sun!

Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

“Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place”

Terry Tempest Williams 

I pray to the birds.
I pray to the birds because
I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward.
I pray to them because I believe in their existence,
the way their songs begin and end each day,
the invocations and benedictions of earth.
I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love
rather than what I fear.
And at the end of my prayers,
they teach me how to listen.

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

"Now who is this knocking at Cottontail's door?"

Beatrix Potter

Now who is this knocking at Cottontail's door?
Tap tappit! Tap tappit!
She heard it before!
And when she peeps out
there is nobody there.
But a present of carrots
put down on the stair.

Adult Quote for Doodling Inspiration: 

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul."

—Emily Dickinson

Youth Poem for Doodling Inspiration:

Shadow Wash

I've never washed my shadow out
In all the time I've had it.
It was absolutely filthy I suppose,
And so today I peeled it off
The wall where it was leaning
And stuck it in the washtub
With the clothes.
I put in soap and bleach and stuff,
I let it soak for hours,
I wrung it out and hung it out to dry,
And whoever would have thunk
That it would have gone and shrunk
For now it's so much
Littler than I.

—Shel Silverstein