An Ode To Gray From A Color-Eater

Gray embodies color blindness

it is the essence of...

A winters day

a rainy day

an impending gloom

a moment of hope lost

that turns even the brightest skies

toward its way.

It is A-Flat and cold

rapes high noon

and breaks her back

dragging her toward evening

blocks out even the brightest rays

and steals the meaning

the light intended to portray

across the face of the waking world.

As gray as the devils cloven hoof

stomping on God's glory

subtle, eerie, looming

the villain in every fairy story

One can't be sure

and yet assumes

that the Big Bad Wolf Himself

was Gray.

Gray is...

a rainy day daydream

it calls the winds to move its prey

it blends and mixes green and blue

removing yellow from the hue

makes it do things it shouldn't do

and blends it all with the heavy

constancy of black.

it is forbidden, it is taboo

it is all the trouble

you love getting yourself into

so that you and only you

can define the way back out again.

It is control

it is the way you held me down

it is the "shhh, don't make a fucking sound."

it is hiding from

slipping under dust ruffles

never intended to serve those purposes

it is a stone carved ancient lie

it is all of those hello's

you know will only ever end in good-bye.

It treads upon the soul

taking everything along with it

as it goes

gray is the pied pipers revenge

the cloak of winters trailing gowns

the fleecing of bright skies

the time God takes to cry

for all the things we have done

you believe He agreed with

you believe He shared your intent.

Trust me... He didn't.

Gray is a necessity

a cleansing

a purging of the light

that meets everything

in all of its in betweens

these two degrees of black and white

takes and renders each

and tempers both extremes.

By jonzac_almighty (postpoems.com)

 Explication:

This particular interested me because the author was also posting on a blog for poems. In all honesty this poem is really weird and it seems as though the author just threw his/her thoughts onto the page. Therefore I shall dub this style the name: "Mind-vomit poetry" (assuming it hasn't been named already). Soon to be taught in grade 11 English classes across North America, Mind-vomit poetry is an effective way of displaying every single one of an individual's thoughts and emotions in an incredibly confusing way that gets other readers' minds racing. Mostly because they are frantically trying to interpret what-in-God's-name you were trying to say in order to secure an A in English class...

This poem provided me with a view into the author's mind on the topic of the colour gray. From what I read it seemed as though the author had a fairly negative opinion on this particular colour. This is evident even in the first stanza in lines such as "an impending doom" and "a moment of hope lost", to name a few.

The poetic devices I found are as follows:

Allusions

-line 17 "the devils cloven hoof"

-line 23 "the Big Bad Wolf himself"

Assonance

-line 26 "rainy day daydream"

Repetition

-line 36 "you and only you"

-line 55 & 56 "you believe He..."

Metaphors

-line 9 "It is A-Flat and cold"

-line 25 & 26 "Gray is... a rainy day daydream

-stanzas 6,7,8 and 9.

Similes

-line 17 "As gray as the devils cloven hoof"

Personification

-stanza 2 & 5

I found that stanza 5 was the closest in relation to my theme of colour because of how the imagery contained in that stanza was created by the actions of the colour gray in relation to many other colours. This stanza's primary role is to liken gray to darker colours and emphasize the author's opinion that the colour gray is something that is bad. Overall I thought this poem was very good but difficult to fully analyze.

GLOW

Glow

Wonderfully bright,

Eternal in thought

Within everything we seek,

Passionately

Explication:


This is a cinquain poem in its most basic form:

1st line - one word (title)
2nd line - two words
3rd line - three words
4th line - four words
5th line - one word


I chose to construct this poem in this style because I admire the impact that a short poem can make upon a reader.  I decided to use "Glow" as my title and theme because it refers to the burning brightness of colour and has a greater connection to more vivid colours as opposed to other darker, more mellow ones. I tried to include as many descriptive words and imagery as I could, but in a poem consisting of only eleven words it was challenging. This cinquain was constructed to appeal to the connection between sight and thought.

Under the Harvest Moon

     UNDER the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.

     Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.

By Carl Sandburg

Explication

In this well-known pastoral poem, Carl Sandburg does an incredible job of outlining changes from one thing to another. For example, he brilliantly describes the change from summer to fall, from life to death, and even from night to day. These opposing ideals are included as contrasts between the first and second stanzas. I chose this poem for my theme of colour because of the little descriptive words the author employs in order to emphasize the contrasts. The lines that I felt were the most important were "When the soft silver drips shimmering" and "When the flagrant crimson lurks in the dusk". These lines are vital to the poem because, unlike lines 5 and 12, they describe a colour as the subject of the sentence rather than using it as an adjective. This lines are more effective because they are used purely for imagery as it is challenging for the reader to comprehend exactly how a colour can "drip" or "lurk". As for poetic devices, there is a hyperbole in line 15 (a thousand memories), as well as a paradox in the last line (unanswerable questions).

Creation's Colours

Indigo is the color of creation

heavens, the formless void

indigo is for the heavens, a color of creation

Blue is the color of creation

water, life giving water

blue is for water, a color of creation

Yellow is the color of creation

sun, life warming light

yellow is for sunlight, a color of creation

Brown is the color of creation

earth, the good rich earth

brown is for the earth, a color of creation

Green is the color of creation

plants, the circle of life

green is for plants, a color of creation

Orange is the color of creation

fire, rail against the dark

orange is for fire, a color of creation

Red is the color of creation

fruits, the bounty of the earth

red is for fruit, a color of creation

Violet is the color of creation

royal hue, the color of the King

violet is for our God, a color of creation

All are the colors of creation

the bow, the dome, the covenant

the rainbow is the color of creation

By Raymond A. Foss

Explication

I enjoyed reading this poem because of how well the author incorporated a large multitude of colours into this piece of poetry. I like how the author gave a brief, but meaningful description for each of the colours he decided to talk about. These descriptions make the poem much more significant for the reader and helped to create a strong image in one's mind as each individual colour was represented as an object or idea in our world. It was interesting to see how the author ordered the colours so as to go back and forth between warm and cool colours. Repetition is the most influential poetic device in this poem as it is used throughout the poem specifically with the first and last lines of every stanza. Lastly I liked how in each stanza the first two lines would be summarized in the last. This added some structure to poem and made it logical and easy to read and appreciate.

Blue

Blue is so fine
so very sublime
so ever beautifully blue.

There's skies
flies
blueberry pies
Blue Ridge Mountains
oceans
sighs
true blue soldiers
lonesome blues
wild yonders we go off into
bluebirds of happiness
blue moons
sapphires
dogs
shadows
tunes
bluets like baby eyes
lost love
soft lights
bluegrass music
summer nights.

I put my new jeans in with the reds
now everything's purple instead.

By Karen Schirmer 

Explication

I really liked this poem because of the large amount of imagery the author managed to put into it. The words and phrases that were chosen to be put into this list poem appeal mainly to the sense of sight but it still gives the reader a good understanding of how the poet feels about the colour blue. Another interesting point is that some of the items in the list (such as: dogs, shadows, lost love, sighs, etc.) are not necessarily directly related to the colour blue, but instead appeal to the senses of the reader and help to enhance the mental picture the reader paints in his or her head while reading this poem.  Rhyming is used in this poem though it is unclear whether there is any certain rhyme scheme present. There are not many poetic devices used in this poem although the poet uses repetition of the word "so" in the first three lines as well as a simile in line 19 (bluets like baby eyes). I found the last two lines to be the most interesting as they introduce new colours into the poem and, by doing so, change the mental image of a world of blue into a more diverse and less monotaneous vision.  I believe that the end of this poem alludes to the creation of a new poem, that has the theme of "purple".