I received a delightful Christmas gift from my daughter-in-law this year: Paint Chip Poetry. Essentially, it is a box full of word and phrase prompts. The added “layer” is that each word or phrase is found on a colored paint chip, similar to what you would find at a paint store. At the start of a week, I pull 4-6 “paint chips” from the box and they become part of my poetry sandbox.
Some days, I play with all of the words, listening for a poem among them. Other days, I pay attention to the color palette they create.
This poem came from Paint Chip Poetry. The prompt was: Six Degrees of Separation; the word was: Obsidian.
Enjoy! And then visit Linda at TeacherDance to peruse the roundup of #PoetryFriday creations this week!
Six Degrees of Separation
 Which is harder:
obsidian
or the nuts and bolts it births,
when hidden within
is the soft,
unstressed starting point?
Yet, in time,
pieces of itself
emerge
to stand firm,
unyielding
insistent,
proud to proclaim their identity
and from whence they come.
©2022 Patricia J. Franz
Patricia Franz is a kidlit writer and published poet. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Wonderful those parts of your poem and about this spectacular rock. I love that it seems so, so black yet when sliced, it is translucent. Love “when hidden within
is the soft,
unstressed starting point?” This might be the start of a rock poem collection? On another note, my son and daughter-in-law have two Bernese Mountain dogs, Abe and Teddie, the sweetest ‘grand-dogs’! It makes me happy to see your picture!!
Thank you, Linda. I’m finding my way in and through poetry; Penny was my muse for 4 short years. Sadly, we lost her to cancer this past November. Berners are THE BEST!
Nice to meet you, Patricia! Paint chip poetry sounds so fun…I’ve always thought I’d be good at naming paint colors, nail polish, lipstick. Obsidian is a great word, but there must something I don’t know about it, because “the nuts and bolts it births” was a surprise to me!
yes, the “nuts and bolts it births” came out of a long chain of thinking about magma that becomes lava and eventually mineral ores that mountains produce… surprise is a nice way to put it! Thanks!
So happy to see you here, Patricia! Your poem was comforting to read, yet filled me with wonderings. Love “the soft unstressed starting point” and “pieces of itself emerge to stand firm.” Now I want to get Paint Chip Poetry!
Thank you, Rose. Paint Chip Poetry has become a great poem-prompt-sharing gift with a couple of sisters and one of my sons.
Patricia, I was given a gift of Paint Chip Poetry too. I haven’t started using it yet, but your wonderful poem has inspired me to give it a try!
You will love it! I don’t use it as a “game” — I just explore words and phrases… it’s playtime in my poetry sandbox!
I like how your obsidian rock poem rolled…off my tongue, Patricia. 😉
Thank you, Bridget. Sometimes that’s what “takes the lead” in my poetry, whether or not the poem makes any sense.
It is wonderful meeting you, Patricia. I saw that you visited my post. Your post is timely for me. I am presenting a virtual short workshop for a reading association on Long Island in a few weeks. I planned on introducing them to Paint Chip Poetry for National Poetry Month lessons. I did not know that there is a game I use regular paint chips from the Paint story to create poems. Obsidian is a beautiful color and you caressed it in lovely lwording.
Not sure why I find it so delightful… I suppose there are any number of word prompt apps that could provide daily inspiration. But there is something lovely about seeing them on paint chips and about the added layer of a color palette that might find its way into a poem. Enjoy!
Welcome to Poetry Friday (I think…unless you’ve been before and I haven’t seen posts). I love the personality of this obsidian: “Yet, in time,
pieces of itself
emerge
to stand firm,
unyielding
insistent,
proud to proclaim their identity
and from whence they come.”
That is the kind of rock I am sometimes…and then other times I’m soft and squishy.
Thank you, Linda. I love to think about both a rock’s origin and what time and human hands eventually make of it.
I’ve played around with Paint Chip Poetry before and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn’t know there was a formal set (game?) available. How fun! Obsidian is a wonderful word and clearly has hidden layers. Like so many others, I like the contemplation of the “unstressed starting point.”
Thank you, Molly. It’s boxed as a “game” but its more a way to share poems or poetic thoughts.
What a great gift, and I love what you’ve done with it!
Yes, it’s one of those avenues that offers entry into creativity.