“A most helpful late-spring-term idiom, /
With chalk-on-the-sidewalk as medium. /
New resolve, activate; /
Peace of mind, cultivate, /
As we aim to regain… equilibrium!”
The 8 April 2026 limerick was another poem that referenced a photo taken during an April walk for a visual punchline, in the poem’s original Bluesky setting.
“A most helpful late-spring-term idiom, /
With chalk-on-the-sidewalk as medium…”
In this case, contrasted with that of the Vesper Way sign from a few weeks’ back, the image was via a more ephemeral medium, since it was written in chalk on the sidewalk.
Seeing it during a walk had reminded me of equilibrium arrows, which in turn suggested “a most helpful” turn of phrase for that point (really, any point) in the academic year.
“New resolve, activate; /
Peace of mind, cultivate, /
As we aim to regain… equilibrium!”
The everyday concept of regaining equilibrium— intentionally taking a moment to restore a sense of stability and peace of mind— is far less technical than the chemical concept of equilibrium, wherein the rates of a chemical reaction’s forward and backward directions balance one another. However, both interpretations (as well as others) can be reasonably tracked back to the same etymology, from the Latin for “equal balance.”
The strikingness of the image on the trail had given rise to this post’s title. As noted above, the theme is a useful one to revisit amidst autumn semester, as much as the image had been to see in late spring semester.
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