poetry space workshop nine

Colours are an unavoidable part of life for most of us and can have both good and bad memories or associations attached.

Try a colour of your life poem. You could choose a particular period of your life or let the colours give a glimpse of life’s stages from young child to adult. Try to give voice to the good as well as the bad associations. You can use one colour all the way through or use a range of colours. It’s a great way to explore memories.

Here’s my example for Red. I have used a simple list form and captured a series of memories over a time scale of about six years from aged five to aged eleven.

 

 

Telling it in Red

 

plump tomatoes for force feeding,

cherry bunched pigtail ties,

swollen tonsils,

sweet and dark pie filling,

potted geraniums on whitewashed

stone, within the sea’s pull,

a short-ribbed top,

too old for me lipstick

a faded rose sewn, on denim jeans,

Dad’s temper,

ugly picked scabs

a child leaking woman’s blood.

 

 

For a more sophisticated approach check out this poem out too. It’s by Marge Piercy and is called Colours passing through us

 

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The deadline for the above workshop was 16th April.

Here are the poems that came in:

 

 

Namita Sethi 

Welcome to the workshop, Namita. I love the way this poem goes from from brightness and optimism into the darkness through the use of colour.I think it is also alluding to how something can be spoilt by doing too much.

 

Tell it in white

 

Tell it in white;

The walls of the rooms, the tiles

In the bathroom, the cold.

 

Tell it in green;

The field where we built our dens,

The deep still pond, the mould

 

Steel metal blue.

A girl’s dress hitched up for us,

The secret-never-told-

 

Thrill knit in red;

Later we dreamed that we’d seen

And shook, rattled ‘n rolled.

 

Still it grows grey;

The field where we played our games

Closed to us, fenced and sold.

 

Still it burns brown;

The earth turned, our dens betrayed,

Our future uncontrolled.

 

Fill it in black,

The pond framed with roads, houses

For rent, or sale (leasehold).

 

Tell it in shades,

The weeks and the years. We still

See in colours, the old.

 

Michael Docker

A very poignant, nostalgic poem, Michael that takes us through a life in colour. I like the child hood innocence is portrayed through the idea of building dens that then become inaccessible when the land is sold. 

 

My Uniform,My friend.

Our first year in high school,
First day,first term.
White uniforms,(one inch below the knee)
red ties, insignia showing,
hair neatly bound,shoes gleaming.
We stood in silence.
Mother principal surveyed us.
“Good”she said,”be proud of your school,
your motto,your uniform,
You wear your uniform everyday,
On Saturday you may wear mufti,
Modest ,mind ,”she added.
What thrill,what excitement !
All day my friends planned
outfits in advance.
A chance to display,
admire,desire and envy,
Not me!
My friend said she would wear her
Bright new skirt.
She asked what I would wear.
Downcast,I said I didn’t care.
Father says school is for study
not fashion.
She looked at the unshed tears,
She knew.
She thought for a moment,
“He’s right,you know”
she said.
“I suppose”I said, not convinced.
Saturday came in a hurry,
I wore my uniform,
white tunic,red tie,insignia showing.
Head bent I walked to school,
ever so slowly.
I heard my name.
There was my friend
in her uniform.
I smiled.
We linked arms ,
and hurried to school

 

Leela Gautam

Thanks Leela for your message to say how much you are enjoying these workshops. I like this one. Colour seemed to be a good way in to exploring a memory with lots of feelings attached, the strictness of your father but also the loyalty of a good friend.

 

This is a lovely exploration of your favourite colour. You evoke each setting beautifully.