All the Colors
With all the colors of the rainbow
glowing in their hue,
I find the one I love the most
is the shining ray of blue.
It’s the color of the open sky
on a clear and gentle day—
the same that shimmers through the waves
where sunlight warms the bay.
Of all the colors evening brings,
the one I love by far
is the white that softly flickers
in the first and quiet star.
It glows upon the branches
when daylight fades to trees—
the silver light of twilight
dancing on their leaves.
Of all the seasons in a year,
the one I love most of all
is the bronze and red of branches
when the summer turns to fall.
It is the rainbow’s missing shade,
the hue the heavens knew—
the color of the stars at night
when kissed with drops of dew.
M.W. Larcinese is a museologist and metalsmith from West Bloomfield, Michigan.
An uplifting, Wordsworth-esque piece of poetry, MW.
Thanks for the read.
Thank you, Paul — I truly appreciate the kind comparison and the time you took to comment.
Mattthew, beautiful rhyme and imagery.
hank you, Roy — I’m grateful you took the time to read, and I appreciate the generous comment.
Beautiful description of nature’s palette and its application of colors. Well done.
Thank you! Your support and response are always truly appreciated.
Thank you, Roy — your comment means a great deal. I’m grateful you took the time to read it.
You have to decide — do you want your even-numbered lines indented, or not?
The way you have it now, with random indentation, is pointlessly sloppy.
Thank you for reading and commenting — I appreciate the time.
The formatting you see on the webpage isn’t the original layout I submitted; the poem was formatted as continuous left-aligned stanzas without the printed markers that appear online. I’m following up with the editors to see if that can be adjusted.
Grateful you took the time to read it
Matthew, I’ve reformatted the poem, thanks.
Thanks, Mike — much appreciated. It looks great now.
Matthew, your poem intrigues the reader by what it leaves unsaid. What is that missing shade at the warm end of the visible spectrum? An illusory bronze-red? Are you doubling colors, as with the sky blue and sea blue in the first stanza? They aren’t the same, but perhaps represent the blue and indigo in optical description. Even the white is also silver, suggesting more colors in nature and in human perception–and in poetry–than those normally named on a color wheel.
Margaret — thank you for such a thoughtful and nuanced reading. I appreciate the way you noticed the tonal shifts in the blues. For me, the colors weren’t meant to be strict categories, but lived sensations — atmospheric rather than literal. The warmer end of the spectrum simply never arrived as I wrote; I tend to dwell more naturally in cooler tones, both in memory and in mood.
Your reflections were a pleasure to read — thank you for taking the time to share them.
A simple, yet delightful poem, reminiscent of Blake in its short, flowing meter and of Wordsworth in its highly personal and wonder-filled treatment of nature. The choice of red, white, and blue is also notable (I can’t help but believe that choice was intentional). This poem begs to be set to music.
Adam—thank you for your thoughtful reading and kind words. I’m honored by the comparisons you’ve drawn, and grateful the rhythm and simplicity carried through in the way you describe. The idea that it might lend itself to music is especially meaningful to me.
What does a metalsmith have to say about music? Though I suppose there are few instruments that can be made entirely without metal, few actually are. Which brings us to color. As the author surely has noticed, the rainbow itself is a kind of octave scale. Whooda thunk it?
Thanks, C.B. — terrific observation. As a metalsmith, I suppose I’ve always believed that color, music, and metal all hum on the same frequency. After all, where would heavy metal be without, well… metal?
And the rainbow as an octave scale — yes, that’s exactly the kind of overlap that sparked this poem. I’m glad the resonance came through.
Appreciate the thoughtful read and the smile it gave me.