Writerly Friends, I am looking at six inches of fresh snow.
We tend to think snow: white. But one of today’s Pantone® colors, “Plein Air,”
invites us to look at the snow in a new light.
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| Day 25 Plein Air Pantone ® 13-4111 |
I notice a gray tone in shadows, in the places where my dog made
a path into the back yard. If I were a painter going outdoors to capture the snow,
I might see a blue undertone to the white, or yellow in the shadows.
Are you so tired of winter weather that you can’t bear this
plein air exercise? You’re welcome to stay in and enjoy a glass of wine. Our
second color for Day 25 of the Pantone® Poetry Project is Syrah.
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| Day 25 Syrah Pantone ® 19-1535 |
We have four days left in our month-long writing project. Stop
by this post to read the back-story of the Pantone® Poetry Project.
Get out your traveling easels and your bottle of wine. We
are globe-trotting today in the name of poetry. Let’s start our trip in the
Louisiana Bayou with Margaret Simon.
En Plein
Air on the Bayou
By Margaret Simon
I sit en plein air
watching the sun create
dancing shadows on the bayou,
ripples arms of cypress trees
to the flowing stream.
When I meditate in open air,
I feel the strength of a creator
echoed in the voice of the Barred Owl,
painted in the details of wild golden rod.
The boom of bass from a passing car,
fades into a gentle swaying of sounds,
signaling the end of winter,
the coming of lavender.
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| Photo courtesy of Margaret Simon |
Diane Mayr is also thinking of spring. Her poem and image
remind me of the Japanese cherry blossoms soon to appear in Maryland and
Washington, D.C.
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The image is from a postcard from the NYPL Digital Gallery. You know how much I love postcards, Diane.
Let’s fly off to the Middle East with Linda Baie’s etymological poem, which uses word history and family history to make connections.
Syrah
By Linda Baie
Sometimes while pursuing information
a small gift is found, a fact, a
photo,
a piece of beauty with unexpected
connections.
I was excited to read Syrah,
similar to Sarah,
my daughter’s name, given
from my grandmother and the Bible.
No, Syrah is not a Sarah,
but also known as Shiraz,
one of the oldest cities in Iran,
formerly Persia.
Celebrated as a city of arts and
letters,
home of the poet Hafiz,
earliest known reference on clay
tablets, 2000BC.
This color, Syrah (or Shiraz) is also
a wine grape
coming from a small area in southeast France
.
A favorite wine of my family, my link
discovered.
I imagine sitting in that poetic city
Shiraz,
before women were forbidden to gather,
sipping wine with my friends-
laughing over our attempts to write
like Hafiz.
Linda Baie ©All Rights
Reserved
To end a poem with Hafiz is an invitation to keep writing
more poetry, so let’s trek to France for our final two offerings.
I am fascinated with Claude Monet’s studies of light. He
returned to some subjects – water lilies, haystacks – again and again, painting
the exact same form at different times of day and in changing seasons. My
favorite of these is Monet’s series of Rouen Cathedral.
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| CLAUDE MONET 'Rouen Cathedral in the Morning Fog,' 1894 From Arty Factory |
Plein Air
By Laura
Shovan
Monet
observes Rouen’s façade
in thirty
forms of light.
These are
the doors at two p.m.
If I had
known when we married
how shifting
light imparts a change
to the
character of stone—
These are
the columns at six
on a
summer evening, dressed
in blue
shadows. The saints
carved into
the archivolt dissolve.
Monet
undoes their robes,
their
stoic faces are mutable.
These are
the towers, the gable
on a
cloudy morning.
How you’d
balk should I
make a
study of your face,
the way the
hour, the season
adapts each
feature. The way
light constructs
your form.
How little
I know you
when I stop
to see.
Our last stop is the River Seine in Paris. Patricia
VanAmburg says, “I am the woman in
the painting, but the artist is more Matisse than Monet.”
Wine on the Seine
by Patricia VanAmburg
by Patricia VanAmburg
A silver-haired woman
sips some Syrah
from a cut-glass goblet
en plein air
and sun-drenched canvas.
sips some Syrah
from a cut-glass goblet
en plein air
and sun-drenched canvas.
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Tomorrow is Day 26 of our project. We have three colors to inspire new writing. You
might find all of these hues in the shadows of deep snow, but I won’t blame
you for thinking ahead to spring.
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| Day 26 Stormy Weather Pantone ® 18-4214 |
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| Day 26 Porcelain Blue Pantone ® 14-4512 |
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| Day 26 Daybreak Pantone ® 17-3817 |
