Color Coded

[alycewilson]

This is my entry for the LJ Idol miniseason, Week 10. This week's topic is "Synesthesia," which is a phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers, such as tasting colors or feeling sounds.

While not a synesthete myself, I have long been fascinated by the phenomenon. In one of my earliest poems, "The Writer's Quest," I long:

For exploding colors,
as audible as memory,
that shout mountains,
swallow time,
echo sensation
across valleys
and wide ocean

In the many years since then, I have often attempted, in my poetry, to splice words and concepts together to achieve a sort of synesthetic effect. And in doing so, I've become aware that certain colors register wider meanings within my verse. To write the following poem, I contemplated various colors and wrote down my associations with them.

Color Coded

Begin with brown: earthy sponge, sparrows
fluttering, the snap of sticks. Brown is a deep knocking,
a resonant and strong foundation.

Yellow brings bright sunlight, optimism,
hope, with children's laughter, the hum of bees,
a flight out of darkness.

Blue charges forward, with bold, oceanic spray,
the sky's expanse, sweeping air, carrying
us forward to discovery.

Pink, effervescent with flirtation, a fantasy,
blowing bubbles, giggling through
festive fields of exhilaration.

Red shuts it all down: halted movement,
surprise, brute strength, charged breath, but then
the rising above.

Black whispers of charcoal dreams, cold,
burned-out soul, mysterious,
unknowable rejection.

Green recovers with the twinkle of elusive spirits,
deep carpets, dancing through summer,
lush freedom returning.

Purple contemplates it all: the richness,
miracles, satin and velvet, a carpet of violets,
attuned to my vibration.




Brown mushrooms, yellow daisies, blue sky, pink flower, red fire hydrant, green trees, purple grape hyacinths

Comments

[muchtooarrogant]

Your poetry is a perfect example of why this prompt scared me so much. Synesthesia isn't all about colors of course, but so often it's the example given, words having colors. I don't have that visual experience, and so ... LOL Then of course, I decided to write a story where dialogue and descriptions took very structured turns. :)

My favorite color here is pink, "Pink, effervescent with flirtation, a fantasy," although I also like what you did with green, my daughter Amanda's favorite color.

Beautifully descriptive as always.

Dan

[alycewilson]

I don't know if you'll believe me, but I was thinking of you (and others like you) at parts when I wrote this poem, hoping that the other sensory details would open it up to people for whom sight is not a primary way of receiving sensory input. I also read through a lengthy description of synesthesia and discovered lots of different, exciting connections that would have been fun to run with! But I decided to go with colors evoking emotions, as that was the version of synesthesia I first became familiar with. That and music evoking colors, but I just wrote an entry about music and wanted to go somewhere new.

I look forward to seeing what you came up with.

[muchtooarrogant]

Ah, thank you, I'm glad to have played a part in your poem.

I know what you mean about wanting to write something new, I frequently discard ideas because they aren't different enough from last week's entry. :)

Dan

[alycewilson]

It's good to challenge yourself! I also wonder if it will impact voting if people think I'm just doing the same thing over and over.

[muchtooarrogant]

That's a good point, although I've honestly given up on trying to figure voting out. Even in the weeks where I've done really well and lead the poll, the total number seems very small when compared to the actual number of people participating in the vote. It's cool, I don't mean it to sound like I'm complaining, I feel lucky to have gotten this far with such stiff competition, the numbers are just weird. LOL I will say, I've kind of gotten a sense for what what will and won't be popular with the Idol audience, but even then, I enjoy taking risks. :)

Dan

[alycewilson]

Yes, it's difficult to say exactly who's voting. Not knowing who the audience is, it's hard to anticipate what's going to go over well.

[xeena]

I have synesthesia and what you've done here I absolutely relate to/experience. I love this. My favorites are blue and pink (my favorite colors), that's how they are to me, you captured them exactly.

[adoptedwriter]

I love all the color associations. Very true!

[alycewilson]

Thanks so much! Some of them might seem a bit random, but I was trying to push beyond the obvious.

[bleodswean]

I've long been fascinated how we imbue colours with personalities, characteristics, emotions! Nicely done!

[alycewilson]

Thanks! I'm sure if we asked everyone, they'd have different ideas. I played around with the idea of adding a poll at the end of this piece, but I didn't really have time.

[erulissedances]

I liked this very much. Yeah ... very much.

- Erulisse (one L)

[alycewilson]

Wow, thank you!

[halfshellvenus]

that shout mountains,
swallow time,
I loved those lines. This is where poetry can be really powerful, conveying images or ideas that may not be logically possible but which speak to us at a subliminal level.

[alycewilson]

Agreed! I don't remember if I've ever written anything about that for LJI, but I feel that one of the strengths of poetry is the ability to engage the reader in nonlinear thinking. You can convey concepts with an economy of language, because you rely on the association between words to blossom within the reader's mind.

[murielle]

I adore people pink giggling. What a wonderful image. So many wonderful images! 👏👏👏

[alycewilson]

Thank you! Pink is such a happy color, isn't it?

[swirlsofpurple]

I love the lyricism of these colour associations, beautiful and relatable

[alycewilson]

Thanks so much! I really wanted to make them accessible.

[rayaso]

This is a wonderful poem for the prompt. I loved what you did for each of the colors.

[alycewilson]

Thanks! I was hoping that it wasn't too "expected," but I also wanted to go with my gut.

[fausts_dream]

Poetry in the top 20? For a non-poetry specialist?

Your versatility as a writer is amazing.

This one seems to get better as you go along as red, black and green are the strongest "colors" in this poem.

[alycewilson]

I have to agree with you about those colors. I went with colors that tend to appear often in my poetry, and to put on paper what they mean to me.

This week I didn't go with poetry, but only because the prompt spoke to me a different way. If I survive, we'll see what next week brings!