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Cataloging the Color of Your World

By L.L. Barkat 16 Comments

red teapot leaning

Over at The High Calling, we’re hunting for color. I already started, and I found a few things to put in my red basket.

Then I thought, what if we went hunting for color poems too? Claire agreed and so we decided we’ll feature two participants each (and link to all). That means one photo and one poem will get featured at The High Calling and another photo and poem will get featured here. As usual, every one will get links. Post your offering by this Wednesday, the 15th, on the T. S. Poetry Press Wall. (Yes, Megan, I know 😉

It also seems like a good time to try out the catalog technique we’ve been exploring at Every Day Poems. In fact, if anyone writes a catalog color poem that really illustrates the technique nicely, that could be another possible place to get featured.

Okay, here’s my try…

The Hunt

I went searching for red,
red on the teapot tree,
red in my dreams, red on
the heart on the edge
of my sleeves. I found it
in baskets, in kettles,
on cloth, on an old rusty
farm tool you wore
to its end
and left in a field
where I found it
one day, when the sky
bled to white, like the words
you kept leaving unsaid.

____

Post by L.L. Barkat. Visit L.L. at Seedlings in Stone, for more on writing, poetry, art and life. This post is also being shared with One Stop Poetry.
____

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L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.
L.L. Barkat
Latest posts by L.L. Barkat (see all)
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Filed Under: random acts of poetry

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About L.L. Barkat

L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.

Comments

  1. Kelly Sauer says

    June 14, 2011 at 8:00 am

    L.L., that poem of yours, it is incredibly intense at its end – you couldn’t have seen that coming. It hurts. Wow.

    Reply
  2. Kelly Sauer says

    June 14, 2011 at 8:01 am

    Which is to say, it is evocative, and really, really good. I do love your poetry…

    Reply
  3. L.L. Barkat says

    June 14, 2011 at 8:48 am

    Kelly, thanks 🙂 I love the way poems can hold feelings from any time and place, as if they were “right now.” I love the way I am free in poems, to be myself or someone else all together. Poetry really is a wonderful vessel.

    Reply
  4. Anthony Desmond says

    June 14, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    i love the color red, and i love this poem! 🙂

    Reply
  5. brian says

    June 14, 2011 at 6:58 pm

    unsaid words scare me….some great textures you found in red esp that old farm tool…

    Reply
  6. leslie says

    June 14, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    “where I found it
    one day, when the sky
    bled to white, like the words
    you kept leaving unsaid.”

    as others have said before me, i was surprised by the intensity of this ending, as your poem started out so light and sprightly “I went searching for red,
    red on the teapot tree”. but i think an intense ending is utterly appropriate for a poem about the color red…

    Reply
  7. Sean Vessey says

    June 14, 2011 at 11:43 pm

    I like the way this poem ramped up in intensity. Very cool. Thank you for sharinging.

    Reply
  8. Glynn says

    June 14, 2011 at 11:51 pm

    Each word a small drop of blood – only a writer knws what it means to write red.

    Reply
  9. HisFireFly says

    June 15, 2011 at 1:52 pm

    ahhh… Glynn is wide indeed. I echo his comment.

    Loved the ending – the words that remain unsaid…

    Reply
  10. Pat Hatt says

    June 15, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    Yeah unsaid words can be ones undoing or the exact opposite, nice write.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Highroads to a Quiet Green City says:
    June 14, 2011 at 6:05 pm

    […] people to hunt for color in our daily life and work. Then T. S. Poetry upped the ante by tacking a catalog poem challenge onto the high calling photo challenge. Here are my attempts at […]

    Reply
  2. Lavender-Grey | Kelly Sauer | Real Life, Fine Art says:
    June 15, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    […] I didn’t expect that I’d need to get EIGHT images! And for an added bonus, we were collaborating with Tweetspeak Poetry this week, writing catalog poems about our […]

    Reply
  3. Level-Headed Red | Know-Love-Obey God says:
    June 15, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    […] the combination PhotoPlay and poetry prompts at The High Calling and T.S. […]

    Reply
  4. Window on Writing: Thank You, God, for This Orange Day « Sandra Heska King says:
    June 15, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    […] (possibly feeble) attempt at a catalog poem for the poetry prompt T.S. Poetry in conjunction with the PhotoPlay color challenge for The High Calling. Share and Enjoy: Poetry, […]

    Reply
  5. Highroads to a Quiet Green City « Good Word Editing says:
    December 10, 2011 at 1:02 am

    […] people to hunt for color in our daily life and work. Then T. S. Poetry upped the ante by tacking a catalog poem challenge onto the high calling photo challenge. Here are my attempts at […]

    Reply
  6. What Color is Your Poem? - Tweetspeak Poetry says:
    March 5, 2023 at 4:04 pm

    […] This feature of Kelly Sauer’s Lavender-Grey is part of the collaborative color writing and photo project hosted by TheHighCalling (see Claire’s Royal Colour Watch) and Tweetspeak’s Cataloging the Color of Your World. […]

    Reply

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