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

[adoptedwriter]

I love all the color associations. Very true!

[bleodswean]

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

[erulissedances]

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

- Erulisse (one L)

[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.

[murielle]

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

[swirlsofpurple]

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

[rayaso]

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

[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.