“Pigments”
~Seth Haines
School-bus yellow. Fire engine red.
Dark black coffee.
Green beans, greenbacks,
pink Cadillac.
Sky blue, golden rule,
brown paper sack.
Some objects are often defined by color, and likewise, some colors are defined by objects. Men have long lusted after the cherry-red Porsche, or the ruby-red lips of their lovers. The perfect little black dress is the staple of the refined lady’s closet. Children have long dreaded the color “school-bus yellow,” and the slow death march to the black board at the front of the class. College students chase the red brick house, the white picket fence.
Color associations are not just relegated to objects. Emotional states are chromatically dressed. The hot-tempered see red, while the sad are blue. The overjoyed are tickled pink. The cowardly? They’re just plain yellow.
Our pigmentatious affectations, however, seem lacking for the colors purple and indigo. Sure, Prince danced in a purple rain, but that was hardly cliche. Who’d ever heard of colored rain until the release of his 1984 album?
There is also Violet Beauregard, the ill-mannered, hyper-competitive girl in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In the 1971 film adaptation of the classic, Violet disregards the warnings of Willy Wonka and chews an experimental three-course gum until she is transformed into a one-ton indigo blueberry. Luckily, Violet ultimately finds relief on the factory juicing floor at the hands of the orange-skinned, green-haired Oompa Loompa crew. Even still, I’m not sure exactly why Violet was painted in indigo hues, nor why Dahl chose to give her the colorful name. Of course, I may be unaware of some long-held association between impertinent children and the colors violet or indigo. (If I am, please feel free to inform me in the comments below.)
It’s true; there seem to be precious few associative references to the colors purple and indigo. But today, we’re here to change that.
What objects do you most associate with colors purple and indigo? What emotional states do the colors bring to mind? For today’s poetry prompt, I’m asking you to explore those associations, to write them as vividly as you can in the comments below.
Who’s first? Go ahead; write a work that makes me green with envy.
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Tweetspeak’s February Purple, Plum, and Indigo Poetry Prompt:
This month’s poetry theme at Tweetspeak is Purple, Plum, and Indigo, and we’re composing poems that play with the theme. Perhaps you can gain a bit of inspiration from this month’s playlist, from a particular piece of artwork, or from your local purveyor of plums, eggplant, or purple-hulled peas. How do you participate?
1. Think about the colors purple, plum, or indigo. Do the colors remind you of a particular place, a type of food, an experience, or a certain mood?
2. Compose a poem inspired by the theme.
3. Tweet your poems to us. Add a #PurplePoetry hashtag so we can find it and maybe share it with the world.
4. If you aren’t a twitter user, leave your poem here in the comment box.
5. At the end of the month, we’ll choose a winning poem and feature it in one of our upcoming Weekly Top 10 Poetic Picks.
This week, Karin played with the ideas of darkness, light, and hope. In “Light Cracks Indigo,” she writes:
Good work, Karin. Thanks for playing!
Photo by Wonderlane, Creative Commons via Flickr. Post by Seth Haines.
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Thanks for the shout out Seth — I hope to write more using this, my favourite palette of colours!
When I think of the color purple, I think of Alice Walker. . .
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” –Alice Walker
Color Purple
Alice Walker
Never met a purple shade
That she did not admire
Which did not persuade
Her regard for it would not tire
She stood with God
In fields of purple flower
With beauty that would not cower
Amidst splashes of the finest color
In the countryside assured
© February 11, 2013, Robbie Pruitt
Here is “Color Purple” on my blog with a cool photo:
http://www.robbiepruitt.com/2013/02/color-purple.html
LOVE it Robbie! Love the image… love the quote and the poem and the she standing there in the purple with God…. it’s really so visually stimulating! Wonderful!
Thank you. . .you are too kind. . .
So I kept with the true holiday spirit. http://faithfictionfriends.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-colors-we-know.html
Seth, I always feel excited and thankful when memories find their way back to me. I have a kind of amnesia that I just have to live with… but wow… this prompt “prompted” so much just with the thought of purple… one thing lead to another and I was back at my father’s childhood home sticking to a lawn chair sipping ice tea. Maybe it’s not really about purple, but it came from purple and so I’m sharing it. And thank you…
flower spirits
2.12.13
not a trace remains
not even a footprint or china cup or hair pin
not even a cellar or wall or brick or rusty skeleton key
not a trace remains
of summer days sitting by the barn
drinking ice tea
and picking raspberries
and saying cheese for the auntie who knows
how fast time flies
not a trace remains
of floor radiator vents for cold winter feet
or lilac bushes surrounding the house they were taller than
not a trace remains
nothing left
but a subtle lilac haze
dancing on the breeze like
ghosts in gauzy robes
marking this ground as sacred place
the spirits of the flowers live
and they feel like
aunt nellie’s hands
picking lilacs for my mother
every spring
and they sound like
bees humming as they
land and sway each branch
of blooms
and they smell like
purple
http://thebrightersideblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/flower-spirits.html
I like this line a lot: “not a trace remains, nothing left, but a subtle lilac haze. . .”
So good. . .
see my image and poem on the prompt @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=559626670723363&set=a.172535902765777.38031.171456336207067&type=1
I really like your art and and liked your Facebook page as well. . . Great illustrations!
Wisteria
Purple
Wraps around
And intertwines
In gripping love
Adorning
Vine and tree
With Purple
Majesty
© February 21, 2013,
Robbie Pruitt
Scent of lilac or lavender
When purple blooms, the senses stir.
Like sunset, wine, or jeweled ring
Purple IS a passionate thing.
Should I turn fifty (or fifty-four)
Dare I wear purple out my door?
Love this. And, just sayyin, I am 53 and wear purple now every chance I get.
Donna, Robbie…your poems are beautifully purple. The lilacs brought memories of my mother’s bushes (irises, clematis too) I also remember the Purple Cow poem and “When I Am an Old Woman I Will Wear Purple” (author?).
Thank you. You are very kind. . .
Thank you lynnediane…
And I don’t know this second poem you mention but I think I am going to look it up!