Monument, Purple Reign: 2014 Poetry Project

Writerly Friends, what is that song I hear?



Oh, you meant that one of today's Pantone®  Poetry Project colors is Purple Reign.

Purple Reign
Pantone® 19-3620

Did that deep purple get you writing today? Or were you visualizing a solemn Monument?

Monument
Pantone® 17-4405

Here is Diane Mayr's (Random Noodling) contribution for Day 3 of our project, shared with her permission.

I used one of the suggested prompts today. What if someone were in a room with Monument-colored walls? Instead of starting from scratch for this exercise, I used a character from my WIP -- a YA speculative fiction novel. The color helped me create a brief character sketch.

In a Fortress on the Moon

by Laura Shovan

Limestone, it’s called,

but that’s a lie. I’ve seen the fruit

Earth folks call lime. Green citrus.

Tangy, sour. By Earth logic,

these limestone walls should be

so green they nearly bite

my eyes with color. But this place

is not the color of fruit –

not from Earth or any other planet.

Its walls are gravestone gray, solid,

still as a hero’s monument. Gray

as this hunk of castoff meteor

where I’m stuck ‘til I earn passage home.

As if the Moon weren’t gray enough,

they built this fortress of

so-called limestone. The only color

on the Moon is the faraway blue

of Earth. That and the pale purple

of my alien skin. 

I promise, this character had pale purple skin before I saw today's colors. This combination of gray and purple was a happy happenstance.

Margaret Simon (Reflections on the Teche) worked both of today's color names into her poem. I am amazed that a prompt as simple as "write in response to a color," helped Margaret create this powerful, evocative poem. 

Snow Monument Garden 

by Margaret Simon

Animal tracks

dot the lines

of the over-life sized

bronze statue,

stuck in mid-sentence.

The still cold arm

glistens pewter-purple

reigning over lists,

soldiers’ names who,

one by one,

sacrificed warmth

for a line on the stone.

Posted with permission. All rights reserved.

Linda Baie (blogging at Teacher Dance), thinks I  might relate to her teenager with purple hair in this poem. I can't imagine why. I didn't get my purple streaks until I was in my 40s.

Purple Reign
by Linda Baie

That girl,
fifteen
with purple hair-

a beauty
queen
who’s not aware

of how she’s
seen,
that others stare,

stays in her
dreams
with friends who dare.

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

If you're coming late to the Pantone®  party, visit my colorful 2014 Poetry Project introduction. You'll find a description of the project, some guidelines for writing with us, and a few prompts to help get you started writing.

My demitasse runneth over... some Writerly Friends have already sent in poems for tomorrow!

Your Day 4 colors are:

Demitasse

Demitasse
Pantone® 19-0712

and Hushed Violet

Hushed Violet
Pantone® 14-3803

That precious color! That delicate cup, with its bitter heat! I can't help but think of poor J. Alfred:

For I have known them all already, known them all; 
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; 
I know the voices dying with a dying fall 
Beneath the music from a farther room. 

Read the entire text of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"  here.

Let us go then, you and I. It's time to let tomorrow's colors work their magic on our Writerly brains.