Color Your Poems

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​Color's crucial to poetry. But as much as you might want to use words like "azure," or "verdant," or "purpurean" or even plain old: "blue," "green," or "purple," your readers (and editors) are eye-thirsty for new rainbows.

And they want shiny  words for every color. In every new poem.

"Impossible!" you say.

Nope.

Not even the least bit difficult if you use this trick. And not only is this trick easy; it's fun.

Here's what you do. Instead of using your handy color thesaurus (or thesaurus in general) you use your imagination to visualize places, things, and even people that fit the color in question.

I'll give you an example. In my poem "Picasso's Eyes" I wanted to end the poem by stating how black Picasso's eyes were: just "Spinal Tap" level black. But in our current age of the Kali Yuga, black happens to be the most worn out crayon in the box. 

So, here's what I came up with:

"Slick pigments black as rues"

For those of you who know even less French than I do, "rues" means "streets." I compared his eyes to dark Paris streets. I still used the word "black" but I powered it up with something new.

In another poem I used "bone-colored foam" instead of "white" in describing a wave. In yet another poem I used "a rose on a pond" to describe something red and shiny.

In one case I even described moonlight silver as "sunlit sands" which may be a stretch, I admit. But I'll point out that that's what moonlight actually is. Unless you think the moon is made of cheese.

Let's try some simple examples.

Blue:  "prize ribbon," "dead monitor," "jay feather," "smurf-colored."

Green: "turtle colored," "Kermit colored," "avocado," "Martian."

Red: "stop sign," "rooster,"  "holly," "poppy."

Yellow:  "honeycomb," "aphid," "baby chick," ""road sign."

Often, you'll need to pair up your new color-phrase with the old word. For example, "road sign yellow." So don't abandon the old standbys, just give them new dance partners. 

But be careful with his trick because a single color might not only take over a line; it might try to take over your whole poem. Which may not be a bad thing!

What you really want to do is dig deep in your memoires and feelings to find colors that hit hard emotionally, because if they strike you that way, there's a good chance others will feel the same.

Colors are emotion and vice-versa. So when you express color in new ways with this technique, you're actually finding new "words" for your emotions. Or even "new" emotions. 

Speaking of which, I hope you'll check out my newly live Desert Nudes sequence to see what I mean! But don't click the link if you're offended by erotic images.   

​If you find this tip useful in any way, please consider checking out my poems link below.

I'd also really appreciate it if you followed me on Twitter -- I update  a lot with tips and markets for poets.

​@BlackstonDan
​
Email me for a bonus tip: writerdan@mail.com

  © 2022 Daniel E. Blackston 

nudes

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