Silver

A shimmer of silver poems
lights up the map of my heart.

I hope they are not tarnished
as they cartwheel and dart

across the page, turning
from platinum to sterling,

to a gentle silver mist, then
shadowing in battleship grey

until blackened silver letters play
and meander into words,

form lines, rhymes, stanzas, odes,
leading us down lanes and roads,

full of scents, sounds and tastes,
unique maps where colour abounds.
 
Kim M. Russell, 16th June 2026

Image by Curated Lifestyle for Unsplash+

This Tuesday at the dVerse Poets Pub, Lillian is our host for Poetics, where we are getting out our crayons and colouring the world with her.

Lillian asks if we remember our first box of crayons, probably a box of eight chunky thick big crayons: red, yellow, green, blue, brown, purple and black. She reminds us of being jealous of older children who had big boxes of 64 thinner crayons with fun names for the myriad of colours , such as brick red, magenta, jungle green, midnight blue, plum, and raw sienna.

Our challenge is to write colourful poems OR poems that emphasize one colour OR poems that delve into the shades of one primary colour. We could write seasonal poems evoking the colours we associate with spring or summer or autumn or winter. We could find a piece of artwork and write ekphrastic poems that lean heavily on its colours. We could describe what we think a red Monday would be like; or a chartreuse Wednesday; or a cerulean-blue Tuesday. No required length, form, or rhyme scheme, our poems just have to be colourful.

Choices, choices…

28 thoughts on “Silver”

  1. I love this! And you’ve really zeroed in on the process of what happens to sterling silver when it does tarnish to “blackened silver letters”. Silver poems treasured by the heart 🙂

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    1. Thanks so much, Lill. As I said in my comment to Cara, y silver wedding ring has become very tarnished, which shows that I’ve never taken it off.

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    1. Thank you, Cara. My silver wedding ring, which I bought for myself for £6 when we had hardly any money, has becomes very tarnished, but I like that. It shows that I’ve never taken it off.

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  12. full of scents, sounds and tastes,
    unique maps where colour abounds.

    Very good closing, Kim! You showed beautifully the relationship of aromatic sounds and tastes to colours! Great!

    Hank

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