like the small patch of sky
peeking through a crack in the clouds
or the twinkle in a lover’s eye
that you can pick out in any crowd.
Blue like a host of forget-me-nots,
a surprise among nettles and long grass.
The blue that ties your tongue in knots
when you remember something from the past.
Something small like a bluebird or a butterfly,
or something immense like the ocean or the sky.
Kim M. Russell, 2nd June 2026
Dora is our host for the first of this June’s Tuesday Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub, with something borrowed, something blue.
She reminds us that “June is the quintessential propitious month for a most common ritual, weddings. The month itself is named after Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, home, and childbirth,” and of the Victorian rhyme, which I learned from my grandmother:
‘Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a sixpence in your shoe.’
Our challenge is to pick an option and either use one (or more) of the five phrases in the Victorian rhyme either as titles or in our poems – the subject is up to us; or we can riff off the rhyme, letting it take us where it wants, from the romantic and sentimental to the fantastic or macabre.
writing in north norfolk 
Love the thought of blue from the immensly large to the tiny and small
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Thank you, Björn, that’s the wonder of blue , as Elvis might have sung.
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We chose the same phrase, and for a title too! Really have to stop meeting like this, Kim. What a delightful riff off of blue, from the grand to the particular, like
“The blue that ties your tongue in knots
when you remember something from the past.”
I know the feeling.
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Ah, thank you, Dora. But do we have to stop meeting like this? I love the way a prompt results in a variety of responses.
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It’s thrilling really, a creative meeting of minds. ❤
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Beautiful written Kim ❤️
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As a color geek, it’s interesting to note that the tighter light gets, the bluer it appears. I enjoyed this.
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Thank you very much!
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