There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch where the chalk-white arrows go To the place where the sidewalk ends. Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, For the children, they mark, and the children, they know The place where the sidewalk ends.

Silverstein composed original music for several films and displayed a musical versatility in these projects playing guitar piano saxophone and trombone. He told Jean Mercier of PubliShel Silversteinrs Weekly: "When I was a kid—12 to 14 around there—I would much rather have been a good baseball player or a hit with the girls but I couldn't play ball. Employing a sketchbook format with typewriter-styled captions he documented his own experiences at such locations as a New Jersey nudist colony the Chicago White Sox training camp San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district Fire Island Mexico London Paris Spain and Africa.

Sheldon Allan "Shel" Silverstein (September 25 1930 – May 8/9 1999) was an American poet singer-songwriter cartoonist screenwriter and author of children's books. He styled himself as Uncle Shelby in his children's books. Translated into more than 30 languages his books have sold over 20 million copies.