Color Meditations

These poems were online at: http://alexannmayberry.blogspot.com/2010/03/couldnt-find-all-poems-online-but-here.html

and http://www.wadlin.com/hailstones.htm

These collage-style slides were created on Microsoft Powerpoint by students in Kite, part of the Kaleidoscope program, in the summer of 2011. We first saved it as a Powerpoint slide show, then I had them save it again "as a webpage," which turns each slide into a "gif." Then later, in my Google Document area, I set up a new "Google Presentation" and imported the images (.gif formats) into a presentation. Then I embedded the presentation into the webpage called "Color Meditations" on my website.

Earlier, we had explored Mary O'Neil's poems, by reading and pausing to discuss them. Not only did we brainstorm for more examples of where we see these colors, but we also pondered some of the subtle elements of the moods and emotional associations of colors, and the smells and sensations she helps us associate with these colors. Some of O'Neil's descriptions employ synaesthesia, a rich and subtle poetic, multi-sensory experience. Questions to use might be: "What descriptions explore the smells of this color? or What sensations or visions does O'Neil evoke with this color?"

Synaesthesia = The poetic description of a sense impression in terms of another sense, as in “a loud perfume.”

(The slideshow will keep cycling around, but you can pause it by clicking on it.)

For a flashcard set for many of the words from "Hailstones and Halibut Bones," click here. (To make the flashcards "expand to full screen," click right below the word "Flashcards," which is in green letters.) The purpose of the flashcards is to broaden our awareness of the of the visual references to the colors that O'Neill provides. Many of the flowers, for instance, are probably unknown to most of us.

Hailstones and Halibut Bones

By Mary O' Neill, © 1961

What Is Yellow?

Yellow is the color of the sun, the feeling of fun,

the yolk of an egg, a duck's bill,

a canary bird and a daffodil.

Yellow's sweet corn, ripe oats,

hummingbirds' little throats

Summer squash and Chinese silk

the cream on top of Jersey milk

dandelions and daisy hearts,

custard pies and lemon tarts.

Yellow blinks on summer nights

in the off and on of firefly lights.

Yellow's a topaz, a candle flame.

Felicity's a yellow name.

Yellow's mimosa, and I guess,

yellow is the color of happiness.

What Is Blue?

Blue is a heron, a sapphire ring,

you can smell blue in many a thing:

Gentian and Larkspur, forget-me-nots, too.

And if you listen you can hear blue

in wind over water and wherever flax blooms

and when evening steps into lonely rooms.

Cold is blue; flame shot from a welding torch is, too

hot, wild, screaming, blistering blue

and on winter mornings the dawns are blue...

What is Purple?

Time is purple

Just before night

When most people

Turn on the light --

But if you don't it's

A beautiful sight.

Asters are purple,

There's purple ink.

Purple's more popular

Than you think....

It's sort of a great

Grandmother to pink.

There are purple shadows

And purple veils,

Some ladies purple

Their fingernails.

There's purple jam

And purple jell

And a bruise

Next day will tell

Where you landed

When you fell.

The purple feeling

Is rather put-out

The purple look is a

Definite pout.

But the purple sound

Is the loveliest thing

It's a violet opening

In the spring.

What is White?

White is a Dove

And lily of the valley

And a puddle of milk

Spilled in an alley---

A ship's sail

A kite's tail

A wedding veil

Hailstones and

Halibut bones

And some people's

Telephones.

The hottest and most blinding light

Is white.

And breath is white

When you blow it out on a frosty night.

White is the shining absence of all color

Then absence is white

Out of touch

Out of sight.

White is marshmallow

And vanilla ice cream

And the part you can't remember

In a dream.

White is the sound

Of a light foot walking

White is a pair of

Whispers talking.

White is the beautiful

Broken lace

Of snowflakes falling

On your face.

You can smell white

In a country room

Toward the end of May

In the cherry bloom.

What is Orange?

Orange is a tiger lily,

A carrot,

A feather from

A parrot,

A flame,

The wildest color you can name.

Saying good-bye

In a sunset that

Shocks the sky .

Orange is brave

Orange is bold

It's bittersweet

And marigold.

Orange is zip

Orange is dash

The brightest stripe

In a Roman sash.

Orange is an orange

Also a mango.

Orange is the music

Of the tango.

Orange is the fur

Of the fiery fox,

The brightest crayon

In the box.

And in the fall

When the leaves are tuming

Orange is the smell

Of a bonfire burning.

What is Pink?

Pink is the color of a rose.

They come in other colors but everyone knows

pink is the mother-color of a rose.

Pink is a new baby, the inside of a shell..

Pink is a cooked shrimp and a Canterbury bell.

Pink is peachbloom, gauzy... frail

the wind's exquisite wedding veil.

Pink is a bonbon, pink is a blush,

some Easter bunnies are pink plush.

If you stand in an orchard

In the middle of Spring

and you don't make a sound

you can hear pink sing,

a darling, whispery song of a thing.

Pink is the beautiful little sister of red

my teacher said,

and a ribbon girls tie round their head.

Pink is the sash with the lovely fold

your remember when you're old.

Pink is the flower on a lady's hat

that nods and bows this way and that.

What Is Brown?

Brown is the color of a country road,

back of a turtle, back of a toad.

Brown is cinnamon and morning toast

and the good smell of the Sunday roast.

Brown is the color of work and the sound of a river,

Brown is bronze and a bow and a quiver.

Brown is the house on the edge of town

where wind is tearing the shingles down.

Brown is a freckle, Brown is a mole

Brown is the Earth when you dig a hole.

Brown is the hair on many a head

Brown is chocolate and gingerbread.

Brown is a feeling you get inside

when wondering makes your mind grow wide.

Brown is a leather shoe and a good glove -- --

Brown is as comfortable as love.

What is Gray?

Gray is the color of an elephant and a mouse

and a falling apart house.

it's fog and smog, fine print and lint,

it's a hush and the bubbling of oatmeal mush.

Tiredness and oysters, both are gray,

smoke swirls and grandmother curls.

So are some spring coats and nannygoats.

Eagles are gray and a rainy day

the sad look of a slum and chewing gum

Wood ash and linen crash.

Pussywillows are gray in a velvety way.

Suits, shoes and bad news,

beggars' hats and alley cats,

Skin of a mole and a worn slipper sole.

Content is gray and sleepiness, too

they wear gray suede gloves

when they're touching you...

What is Red?

Red is a sunset, blazy and bright.

Red is feeling brave with all your might.

Red is a sunburn spot on your nose,

sometimes red is a red, red rose.

Red squiggles out when you cut your hand.

Red is a brick and a rubber band.

Red is a hotness you get inside

when you're embarrassed and want to hide

firecracker, fire engine, fire flicker -- --

and when you're angry red runs through your head.

Red is an Indian, a Valentine heart,

the trimming on a circus cart.

What is Green?

Green is the grass and the leaves of trees

Green is the smell of a country breeze.

Green is lettuce and sometimes the sea.

When green is a feeling you pronounce it N. V.

Green is a coolness you get in the shade

of the tall old woods where the moss is made.

Green is a flutter that comes in Spring

when frost melts out of everything.

Green is a grasshopper, Green is jade

Green is hiding in the shade -- -- --

Green is an olive and a pickle.

The sound of Green is a water trickle

Green is the world after the rain,

bathed and beautiful again.

April is green, peppermint too.

Every elf has one Green shoe.

Under a grape arbor air is green

with sprinkles of sunlight in between.

Green is the meadow, Green is the fuzz

that covers up where winter was

Green is ivy and honeysuckle vine.

Green is yours, Green is mine...