VIVID- Poems & Notes About Colour

Today I have an intriguing new book to share. ‘Vivid’ by Julie Paschkis -a hybrid text incorporating poetry and informational notes about colour. The author and illustrator reminds us how colour is woven into our language, connected to our moods and colour has different connotations among different societal groups.

The poems are mostly quite short, free verse poems at times employing repetition and elements of rhyme. The poems easily complement the fascinating facts that accompany each of the poetic offerings. The partnership between information and poetry created in this text adds a deeper dimension to the reading experience.

'Even though blue is often associated with sadness, it is the most popular colour according to polls taken in ten countries around the world.'

On a personal note, and as a reader, this book meets two strong interests of mine- factual information and verse. The book demonstrates the various ways to think about colour and delivers a playful way to explore the colours of our world.

I love books that present possibilities. This book shows how poetry connects effortlessly to the wider world.

INDIGO

Diving
Into
Long Lake
headfirst
In I go
plummeting
through
light
blue
deep
down
low
into
indigo

Julie Pashkis

I
I have been inspired to experiment with this approach in my writer's notebook. I will be sharing this approach with the young poets with whom I write, hoping they may be inspired to try such an approach, in their own writing.

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,' Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant. A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...

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