Lillian here, asking you a question, have you heard the words “color my world”? Well, that’s what we’re going to do for today’s Poetics.

Do you remember your first box of crayons? The first box you actually owned that was yours and yours alone? I do. It was on the list of supplies my mother had to buy me when I went to kindergarten in 1952. It was a box of eight chunky thick big crayons: red, yellow, green, blue, brown, purple and black. Chunky crayons were made for little hands and I’ll bet, like me, you drew some pretty simple pictures back in the day. A big yellow sun and stick figure people? And maybe you were like me: I was jealous of those kids in the “upper” grades who had big boxes of 64 thin crayons with fun names for the myriad of colors they had at their fingertips: like brick red, magenta, jungle green, midnight blue, plum, and raw sienna. (AI image below made on Bing Create)

For me, if you say a particular color, it brings up a feeling or meaning colored by my experiences (pun intended). For example, here’s my connections:

yellow: banana popsicles and sunshine
red: cold cheeks on a winter day or Santa
blue: down in the dumps/feeling the blues
green: grass, trees, my dad mowing our yard
purple: royalty
black: funerals
grey: cloudy days and my hair (I was once a brunette!)
white: the absence of color
beige: boring
orange: orange blossom perfume my grandmother in Florida always wore
gold: my wedding ring
silver: tinsel for our Christmas tree

Now I could have Googled the meaning of various colors and gotten a list of attributes associated with certain shades and hues. I guess some kind of experts have determined those associations over the years? I’d rather color my world as I see it and as I feel it.

So, have you guessed the prompt? It actually can go a number of ways….you can write a colorful poem (choose your own meaning for “colorful” and be sure to share that meaning in an end note to your poem); OR you can write a poem that emphasizes one or two colors OR a poem that delves into the shades of one primary color. You could write a seasonal poem evoking the colors you associate with spring or summer or autumn or winter. You can find a piece of artwork and write an ekphrastic poem that leans heavily on its colors. You can describe what you think a red Monday would be like; or a chartreuse Wednesday; or a cerulean blue Tuesday. So many ways to play with your crayons and words today! No required length, form, or rhyme scheme. Just be sure it’s colorful! Looking forward to reading some well hued poems posted on Mr. Linky below!

New to dVerse?  Need to be refreshed on the rules? Here’s what to do:

• Write a poem that involves a color or multiple colors! There is no particular form, length, or rhyme scheme required…your poem just has to be colorful!

• Post the poem to your blog AND add the exact URL for your poem to Mr. Linky below.

• REMEMBER to either TAG dVerse in your post, or include a link at the end of your poem that leads readers back to dVerse (https://dversepoets.com). 

• If you do not TAG or include a link to dVerse at the end of your post, I will gently remind you to do so. After all, this will increase your readership and comments, and others will find dVerse and hopefully join in the fun. If you do not add the TAG or link after my reminder, I will remove your post from Mr. Linky. I do not want to do that! So please do include the TAG or link!