“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together … all things connect.” —Chief Seattle
Today marks the 50thanniversary of Earth Day. The planet speaks to me in poetry, in the sound of a spring rain and the way its droplets weigh down the emergent foliage on the birch tree out back. It disperses light through the delicately transluscent skin of the bleeding heart’s blossoms in my garden. It erupts in colours and patterns of all kinds.
Today, take some time to ponder colour. Let it speak to you. Since today we celebrate the earth, find some of the colour that springs from it and write about it. Let imagination be your brush, your pen.
Colour poems are simple and beautiful. Start by reading a poem by one of the greats…Shel Silverstein. What colours are you? Do your colours change?
Go to your garden or look at a plant in a window. Do you see green? Pink? Reds and oranges?
Write a list poem, using the colour at the beginning of each line. Write a 5 senses poem. What does your colour look, sound, smell, taste, feel like?
Below is a short list poem I wrote to honour the earth and a feeling poem inspired by green.
Pink
Pink is the morning sun through a tapestry of trees.
Pink is a shower of cherry blossoms, brushed free by a passing robin’s wing.
Pink is the earth’s first blush of love, red tempered with white, twirling, ephemeral to the dreamers below.
Green
Green looks like the first tender shoots of grass, pushing through winter’s turf.
Green sounds like stillness across a pond.
Green smells like wet earth and tulip petals.
Green tastes like spring rain on your tongue.
Green feels like hope.
These colour poems can be adapted for any age, be composed with one word or several. Try one today and share below. Take a photo to go with your poem or draw a picture. Colour the earth with creativity.
Lori Sherritt-Fleming Author 