The Color True
It bruises dusk with velvet shade,
Descends where ocean dreams are laid.
It clings to wings in mid-air flight
A jay, a thought, a piece of night.
It hums within the glacier’s hold,
In sapphire flame and silence cold.
It dresses flowers, firm yet shy
The iris, poppy, cornflower sky.
It shimmers soft on robin’s egg,
Then pools beneath the mountain’s leg.
It floats in lakes that never sleep,
And gathers where the shadows creep.
It stains the thread in denim seams,
Appears faintly in lullabies and dreams.
It speaks in hush, it sings in moan,
A shade that chills marrow in bone.
I’ve seen it in my mother’s gaze
That far-off look through childhood haze.
I’ve heard it when she would not speak,
A hush of blue upon her cheek.
We gave the sea its name through this,
which cloaked the sky in cobalt bliss.
We let it paint the world’s wide face,
Yet stitched it tight in sorrow’s lace.
It hangs above, it swells below,
It marks the time we let things go.
It wraps around what we outgrew
The color true, the color blue.
Advika Asthana is a tenth grade student at Dulles High School, in Texas.
Beautiful tribute to Blue, Advika!
A wonderful and very cleverly consructed piece, Advika – so many thought provoking associations.
Thank you…
This young high school student has remarkable talent. The rhymes are perfect, the meter is smooth, the diction is mature, and the imagery is vivid. It is an honor to have this student here at the SCP.
I fear only one thing. Budding young poets sometimes fall into the hands of politicized free-verse instructors, who will do all in their power to convince such students that they are being “old-fashioned,” and that they need to abandon what they do in favor of formless, pointless, free-verse crap. I hope this does not happen to Advika.
A beautiful poem with fabulous imagery. I especially liked, ‘stitched it tight in sorrows lace.’
Splendid Advika,
it saddens me that so few people seem to notice the beauty and the meaning of it which surrounds us all.
Hopefully more people will indeed notice after reading your poem.
warmest regards,
Karen in Cambridge UK
This is just splendid! As Dr. Salemi said above, you have true talent. The very first line made me sit up and take notice: “It bruises dusk with velvet shade.” For you to think of the color blue as bruising the dusk, is an extremely original expression. Describing a color in words is not easy (I wonder if you are also a visual artist?), but you’ve done it over and over again in each verse of your poem. “A jay, a thought, a piece of night” is a brilliant combination of three unlike things that now, because of the way you’ve put them together, have something beautiful in common.
I certainly hope we hear from you again, Advika!
What a beautiful poem!!!
This is an exquisite poem – beautifully crafted and an absolute delight to read. Advika, thank you!
I could hardly believe my eyes when I reached the end of this remarkable poem and discovered that its author is a high school student because, as others have noted above, it displays real maturity in its craftsmanship. Thank you, Advika, for sharing it with the wider community. Keep writing, and keep writing like this.
Such a lovely poem, Advika. It’s very obvious you love words.
Not so obvious is your age which is astounding.Thank you for
sharing this beautiful work.
A superb color poem–and I say this as one who collects them with the dream of one day making an anthology. It is not simple description. In fact, the first four stanzas use verbs to allow the color to act and move in many ways; it becomes a character. Then come the poet’s personal observations in stanza five, and more general ones in stanza six, while the final stanza brings forth the color’s most universal actions before announcing its symbolic value (being “true” in loyalty or fidelity) and pronouncing its name. A far-reaching structure of anticipation and resolution.
Wonderful, Advika. ‘True Blue’, by Cyndi Lauper is one of my favourite songs. You’ve captured the essence of the colour admirably.
Thanks for the read.
I too, really enjoyed this poem about my favorite color. You have perfectly explained to me just why I love it so much. Thank you Advika.
“It bruises dusk with velvet shade,
Descends where ocean dreams are laid.
It clings to wings in mid-air flight
A jay, a thought, a piece of night.”
Advika the rhythm of your poem announces proportionate motion. “The Color True” carries the reader with a gentle-enough step, while avoiding boredom or sloth – and touching music. I appreciated Mr Salemi’s words; the terse, ugly verbiage common in journalism, is mirrored with cheap facility in free verse. Some lead with traditional poetry, then pull you into deconstruction. Their disciples are bored – except when cleverly describing excellent work, such as T.C.T., with their go-to, overworked slur: “quaint.” Your poem is not quaint in the least; “The Color True” is timeless, and it made my evening! Keep it up and a musician to two will appreciate – possibly employ – your words.
This is quite the remarkable poem. It makes me ashamed of what I was writing in the tenth grade. Where the author goes from here is not for me to say, but I am guessing there is much more where this came from. As Dr. Salemi cautions, Ne te a nebulonibus conterantur.