Walking with Colours

Today it rained.
I didn’t go for a walk,
not even with my bright
blue umbrella.
it was too grey
after yesterday.

I did the ironing instead;
all the dark washing,
nothing orange, pink or red,
which didn’t help.
But then I got thinking
about yesterday:

my neighbour’s daffodils
nodding bright yellow
in short gusts,
and the primroses’ pale frills,
the thrust
of golden crocuses,

and the early quince blossom
lending our garden a silver halo.
I ended up walking
with the colours in my head,
nothing orange, pink or red,
not yet.

Kim M. Russell, 21st February 2024

Susan is hosting with a colourful prompt over at What’s Going On? today, with poems by Marge Piercy, Mary Oliver, and John Donahue to inspire us.  She asks us to choose a moment in time and place to ‘paint’ in colour, which could be something you observed, experienced or in the imagination. We should think about colours that float to the surface and colours that pass through.

32 thoughts on “Walking with Colours”

  1. I love this. Those first colours of spring are so heart-lifting. I love the pondering while doing the washing, and how the memory of the blooms lifted you out of the dark colours. They do that for me, too. So relatable. These are the small moments that poets see and capture, that many might miss in a morning of chores.

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  11. Oh, you’ve composed this so beautifully. I love it when a poem uses the commonplace to say something larger, especially when it’s done in such a lovely way.

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  14. Yellow is such an uplifting colour. I like the way the memory of it brightened your day. I wish there was more of it about. I’ve been looking for yellow cushion covers for my new home but haven’t found any. Everything in the shops is beige over here this year.

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