This first Friday of June, the Inklings are being challenged by Molly Hogan who wrote, “I’m always startled by the dazzle of color that arrives in spring after months and months of blues and whites and greys. This month I’m inviting you to write a color poem.” Little did I know that I would be having cataract surgeries on May 23rd and 30th, so the attention to color would be all the more brilliant. I can see such vivid yellows, greens, and reds I feel I have been looking through a clouded glass bottle for a long time.
I found inspiration in this poem by Eileen Spinelli :
I have a collection of red flowers all around my house, hibiscus, bougainvillea, lily, and desert rose. I shared my first draft with the Inklings. Linda suggested that I turn my red poem upside down. It worked. Sometimes others can see more clearly what the poem needs to be.
See how other Inklings approached this challenge:
Mary Lee @Another Year of Reading
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Reflections on the Teche 
The alliteration in your poem is lovely, Margaret. I also really like thinking about how lilies”swallow sun and rain.” Eileen Spinelli’s book is in my collection somewhere. I’ve used it with kids and adults and often as a MT for myself. I hope your surgeries go well.
Margaret, that’s neat the way you used the opening line of Eileen Spinelli’s poem and went with it with such good results. I can hear the b[ee]s buzzing among the red, too!
Gorgeous! I adore Eileen and her work, and what a beautiful inspiration for your poem.
— “a ruby-throated red hummer/hovering over flamboyant skirts/of red hibiscus…” That is just delicious.
You Inklings are awesome, btw.
Your photos are utterly gorgeous. I’m hard pressed to decide which color I like more. My grandparents house was near the Atchafalaya, and we rarely got to see it brimming with color. I mostly remember my grandma’s pecan tree blooming. Your poems always give me such a beautiful sense of place.
Love it! I will have to seek out the author of the poem you used for inspiration, Margaret – but yours is inspiring as well! I love how you took Linda’s advice and turned it upside down – Thank you for sharing RED! (And your flowers look beautiful as well!)
This is beautiful, Margaret! Also, check out Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures in Poetry and Color
and Red Sings from Treetops, if you’re not already familiar with both of them. Glorious color poems.
I adore “Red Sings from Treetops” !!!
How wonderful that you have had cataract surgery and that the colors are vivid once again. “Flamboyant skirts of red hibiscus” is a delight.
I love Hailstones and Halibut Bones however, the poem on red has not aged well with a reference of red being the color of a group of people.
I’ve had the cataract surgery-amazing! I love the color red so love your poem, especially the ‘skirts of red hibiscus’! Happy your surgeries went so well, Margaret!
LOVE this…and now I want to write a “If you want to find…” poem. What a beautiful response to the prompt…especially “balancing on the bayou’s brown,” and lillies that “swallow sun and rain.” Perfection.
Thanks to Eileen Spinelli, one of my first poetry mentors, for inspiring this wonder of a poem! I cannot pick out a favorite line; they all flow compactly but fluidly and I am swallowed by red. Brava!
I love how receptive you were to red and to Linda’s suggestion. Your word choice is wonderful and I especially appreciate the image, like so many, of your lilies “swallow(ing) sun and rain”. Those bougainvillea “balancing on the bayou’s brown” are pretty impressive too! Yay to dazzling colors and newly refreshed vision 🙂
You live in fabulously beautiful place! The poem captures all the red in such a sensuous way. The reds are all so different but belong together. Love the flamboyant skirts of the hibiscus.
Red balancing on bayou’s brown! Such a luscious image!
Margaret, wow! I love all your images and voice in your beautiful poem – “flamboyant skirts of red hibiscus” and “swallow sun and rain” your personification and alliteration-oh my. All your red flowers are amazing, I especially like the contrasting colors of the desert rose, which I have never seen before. I have always loved Eileen Spinelli’s work; I read a lot of her books to my girls. Thank you for your gorgeous poem, Eileen’s poem, photos and inspiration. I am going to use Eileen’s poem as a mentor poem, too. Would let me use your poem as a mentor poem, also? Right now in my garden, I have lots of different purples.
Anything I write here is fair game for usage with credit. This is my poetry playground. Thanks for coming by.
I need more red in my garden! Purple is the dominant color right now, but the yellows are getting ready to burst out (Evening Primrose and Black-Eyed Susan, I’m looking at you!)
For some reason, seeing purple is popping for me with my new eyes. In the butterfly garden at school, we planted a white salvia that is now purple, so gorgeous! And black-eyed Susans line our roadways, but I’m told they need full sun and we have a shaded yard. Red seems to be my go-to color for flowers because our house is white.
Margaret, color surrounds you! I adore your photos and wish I could be there to see in person your splendid display of nature’s gifts. The verbs in your golden poem stand out and make for a beautiful thought. I can even see it as a song about nature (the red one also). Happiness is being sent to you from my garden to yours.
I love the red with the balance of the bayou’s brown — you’ve conjured such a rich vista in such a short piece.