Joni’s Colours

I listen to her voice paint a light
and rainbow coloured folk song
about a child whose eyes were bright
but would never see, of crayons,
trees and love. The colours flow
through a Chelsea morning,
with crimson beads and yellow
curtains and a taxi, as if she’s singing
just for me. A little green fades to blue,
so many shades, from blue boy
to blue motel room, cold steel
and sweet fire. Her voice mellows,
chocolate smooth, a black crow
flies in a blue sky – we’re back to blue.

Kim M. Russell, 3rd December 2020

Blue (Joni Mitchell album) - Wikipedia

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Synesthesia 

Grace is our host this Thursday, reminding us of the previous writing challenge in which we concentrated on writing a poem using grapheme colour synesthesia. She also gives us a quick recap of what synethesia is.

Seeing music as colours is one form of synesthesia. Grace has shared links to two videos, the first an example of chromesthesia, a type of synesthesia in which a nonvisual stimulus causes the individual to perceive colour, and the second of Lorde, New Zealand singer and songwriter, who sees colour in her music.

Our challenge is to incorporate music in our poems from the perspective of a synesthete.  We can create our own symphonies, infuse our musical experience when listening to a band, artist or musical genre, with colours, sounds and textures, write songs filled with colours.

48 thoughts on “Joni’s Colours”

  8. This is absolutely STUNNING, Kim! 💝 I love the many shades and connotations of blue in this poem especially; “from blue boy to blue motel room, cold steel and sweet fire. Her voice mellows, chocolate smooth, a black crow flies in a blue sky.” 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much, Sanaa, I think I covered most of her earlier work, up to Hejira, and could have gone on, I love her so much, but I didn’t want to kill the vibe.

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  13. I never get enough Joni. It’s incredible how you covered most of the songs in the album. Made me think of that “black crow swooping down to pick up something shiny”. Very clever piece, excellent response to the prompt. I almost chose Joni too, but went with ZZ Top.

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  22. LATE LATE to the reading….and I posted to it so late as well. Just catching up before I host prosery today.
    You’ve captured Joni so very well here….most especially in these words I think
    “cold steel
    and sweet fire. Her voice mellows,
    chocolate smooth, a black crow
    flies in a blue sky – we’re back to blue.”
    DEFINITELY!

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    1. Thank you so much, Lill! I have adored Joni for fifty years, have all her albums, biographies and a book she had published for her friends one Christmas. All that’s missing is some of her art, although I do have a portrait of her that was done by an English artist.

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