Happy New Year! If you are looking for a way to feed your writing life, subscribe to Poets & Writers’ The Time is Now. I do not do their prompt every week, but this week when I was feeling out of touch with writing, I opened it to find a prompt that worked well for me.
| “Mars Being Red” by the late poet Marvin Bell lyrically explores the color red as a state of being, likening it to a list of images that both physically resemble the color and provide memories, such as that of youth. In this compact, twelve-line poem, Bell begins what seems to be a portrait of the planet Mars and then delves into a series of digressions that find resolve in a meditation on the possibility of change: “You will not be this quick-to-redden / forever. You will be green again, again and again.” Inspired by Bell, write a poem that serves as a portrait of a color. Use physical descriptions to begin and then personal memories to develop a transformation in this study of hue. |
Bayou Being Green
Being green is the color of an amaryllis
Margaret Simon, draft after Marvin Bell “Mars Being Red”
bud before blooming. Color of time lost
in growth, of soul lost inside
meditation. Green of grassy meadows
we walked with the dog, while our steps
made time disappear for a moment.
Contemplation becomes green in your eyes,
emerald of stars, early light reflects
sage from the bayou surface where green
water darkens as we stroll west toward
sunset, away from dawn into an age
of white on white on white.
If you are looking for a weekly photo writing prompt, subscribe to my blog, I am posting a photo each week on Thursdays and invite you to write a small poem response. This Photo Wants to be a Poem.
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, this is a stunning poem…I love the measures of time in growth and walks….and that strolling to an age of white on white is beautiful. Your photo perfectly matches this poem. Which came first? The photo or the poem? Happy New Year to you.
The photo was from a canoe paddle in November, but the bayou looks this beautiful every day. Thanks for your comment.
Margaret, I absolutely love your poem. And I’m going to sign up for those prompts. Thanks! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Thank you for the info about Poets & Writers. I signed up the for the Friday newsletter about prompts. That will help keep me motivated.
Gorgeous layers of green on green. It did work well for you! Happy New Year, Margaret.
It feels like a languid journey, satisfying and heartfelt, Margaret. This truly is a special poem. Happy New Year!
You’ve woven a trance like movement from the green amaryllis to
“green in your eyes,
emerald of stars,
and then a dramatic shift to an upward
“white on white on white. Lovely, thanks!
Wonderful prompt and result!
I feel like I journeyed through the green of the bayou with you via your poem, Margaret. Thank you! 🙂
Gorgeous photo and poem on the greenness of the bayou – favorite line: “soul lost inside meditation.” Thanks for the P&W prompt tip as well – you know I love “This Photo Wants to Be a Poem.” It’s a gift!
I tried to pick one phrase/line as my favorite, but it kept expanding! The last six lines just really draw me in. Thanks for the prompt and poem, Margaret!
Margaret, I love how your image of a light green amaryllis bud hooks the reader, and how you meander the reader through images of dark greens, grassy green, contemplation green, emerald, sage, to green water, to an age of white. Beautiful poem full of imagery and emotion! I feel like you gave me a leisurely boat ride through your bayou and life. Thank you so much for the prompt. I read Mars Being Red, but I like your poem better. Looking forward to writing about all the blues that are waving in my mind. I love your “This Photo Wants to Be a Poem” blog, which I always look forward to and thank you for spreading joy and light in your poems, prompts, and comments. Happy New and Healthy 2021 to your family and you. May it bring you light and joy as you have given to me. Enjoy going back to teach your students.
Margaret, I see that your love for the bayou is evident in your photo and words. You gave me a beautiful glimpse of the colors of your location as you too all of us along on your walk.