I Don’t See Blue
I mourn the loss of turquoise
and the richness of royal
periwinkle, powder
cobalt and cornflower
Sometimes black looks navy
Sometimes in the morning
I catch a glimpse of aquamarine
but by afternoon it’s all gone white
I imagine gray as baby blue
and dream about the passion of indigo
I write about a robin’s egg cracking
and the glass marble sparkle I knew in your eyes
But where is my bluebird of happiness now
my wonderful world of blue sky?
I imagine them off living a new life
with those who take them for granted
I strain to remember the Caribbean sea
the iridescence of clam shells in New England
the blue quilted jumper my mother dressed me in
while my sister wore red for school picture day
______Colleen Redman________Imaginary Garden with Real Toads
April 13th, 2015 3:02 pm
I love all these descriptions of blues you don’t see… and this :
“But where is my bluebird of happiness now?
My Ella Fitzgerald blue sky?
I imagine it off living a new life
with those who take it for granted
April 13th, 2015 3:13 pm
This is so gorgeous! 😀
Never knew poetry could be so innovative as is this particular poem 😀 Lovely images you have painted here! So inspiring 😀
Sometimes black looks navy
Sometimes in the morning
I catch a glimpse of aquamarine
but by afternoon it’s all turned white
Its breath-taking…..!!
xoxo
April 13th, 2015 3:23 pm
this is so enchanting. I love the Ella Fitzgerald blue living a new life with those who take it for granted.
April 13th, 2015 5:06 pm
So many blues and they really get into the minds’ eye if you miss them!
April 13th, 2015 6:04 pm
“My Ella Fitzgerald sky” Love that. This feels like a blues song. So beautiful
April 13th, 2015 7:55 pm
A wonderful evocation of the various shades of blue— and oh, how tragic to lose the experience of them, even if memory serves. I do hope this is imagined, no autobiographical!
April 13th, 2015 8:08 pm
It’s auto-biographical in that it’s a metaphor for other losses.
April 13th, 2015 8:39 pm
Odd what one sees when they miss it, even odder what we don’t see or feel when we have it oh so close. A little cathartic and chasten; I suspect it was healthy to write.
April 13th, 2015 8:53 pm
Yes, Calvin. Poetry is my form of cheap therapy.
April 14th, 2015 12:03 am
Beautiful! I love all the blues and then the finish with red~
April 14th, 2015 10:44 am
Ah.. how we long for that blue.. love this wonderful road searching for the hues of blue.. I think that finally we will find it in the minor keys of blues…
April 14th, 2015 11:50 am
That flash of red in the closing is so effective and I love the depth of blue that you bring…so intense. Beautiful work, Colleen.
April 14th, 2015 12:18 pm
This poem speaks to me of the loss of things we remember from our youths, not just the blue of sea or sky, but what it meant to be a child on such days. This is a very reflective piece.
April 14th, 2015 12:45 pm
Have you really lost the ability to see blue? All of the blue eloquence of your poem, like a great blues song, compounds the tragedy.
April 14th, 2015 12:49 pm
Great imagery of colors Colleen! There are drains of color blue to content with!
Hank
April 14th, 2015 1:21 pm
🙂 I like the way you have used so many shades in this beautiful poem:)!!!!
April 14th, 2015 5:08 pm
I think this is my first time reading you, and oh. my. goodness. This was a really powerful piece. I love all the differential varieties and imagining that plain ol’ blue just went somewhere else. Exquisite.
April 15th, 2015 6:48 am
Ah, and my sister was dressed in red. Very nice.
April 15th, 2015 12:04 pm
Oh, my, my…. I’ve so come to love your witty sense Colleen – one of my favorite bloggers for sure – yet I am surprised – each and every time – when I stumble over here and find some of the most wonderful, multi-dimensional, emotionally rich, power-packing poetry that I could ever find… almost as though I came here to read an hysterically funny letter to your mom or hilarious anecdote to some impossible life situation, all in the hope that my heart will be lightened by your wonderful style. But today my heart was brightened. Oh how serenely lovely this poem is, dropping those little baby-blue robin eggs all over, like Ella Fitzgerald in the sky – or sister wearing red for picture day. Those wonderful little memories, so vast, so very different, yet perfectly in place here together in their new tidy little catch-all drawer…… And those colorful images of New Orleans so scream jazz to my soul…. Good job poet! Now, make me laugh please. I need a good one….
April 15th, 2015 12:15 pm
John, you’re comments are so richly poetic!
April 15th, 2015 6:30 pm
[…] 10: This month’s begins: I mourn the loss of turquoise / and the richness of royal / periwinkle, powder / cobalt and cornflower / Sometimes black looks navy / Sometimes in the morning / I catch a glimpse of aquamarine / but by afternoon it’s all turned white … More from my latest poem, I Don’t See Blue HERE. […]