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...