Something Blue

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.


40 thoughts on “Something Blue”

  2. 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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  13. I too chose that irresistible phrase – and I love “The blue that ties your tongue in knots
    when you remember something from the past.”

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  14. I like the forget-me-nots among nettles, hinting at memory and sweetness inside something rough. Nicely done Kim 👏

    Your poem also reminded me about the relative new-ness of the word blue in many languages. Also the idea that blue sky cannot be blue, though obviously is, is playing around in my head….

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