Self-Portrait with Blue
Darker shades contain black or grey. I claim
the median and the shortened spectrum, near dawn’s terminus.
In many languages, one word describes both blue and green.
Homer had no word for it.
The color of moonlight and bruises, of melancholy and unmet
expectation, it cools and calms, and slows the heart.
Woad. Indigo. Azurite. Lapis lazuli. Dyes. Minerals. Words. Alchemy.
On this clear day I stretch my body on the pond’s surface and submerge.
Not quite of earth, blue protects the dead against evil in the afterlife,
and offers the living solace through flatted notes and blurred 7ths.
Blue eyes contain no blue pigment.
In China, it is associated with torment. In Turkey, with mourning.
Between despair and clarity, reflection and detachment,
admit the leaves and sky, the ocean, the earth.
Water captures the red, but reflects and scatters blue.
Look to me and absorb, and absorbing, perceive.
This originally appeared in the Silver Birch Press Self-Portrait Series, and is included in The Circumference of Other, my offering in the Silver Birch Press chapbook collection, IDES, published in October 2015.
O at the Edges 
brilliant as always brother.
Peace and Hope and Equality for All
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Thank you, Afzal. Yes, peace and hope and equality for all!
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✊
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my brother! ✊👍✌
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Fabulous frnd
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Thanks very much!
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Everything is making me cry today. Marc Gunn’s tunes. This gorgeous word painting. Robert. The sacred world is everywhere. Everywhere. Your words are beyond magical. I’m not wording well. Thank you for writing. So much.
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You have made my day. Thank you, as always, for your kind words.
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As is often the case with your work, I have read this over and over. As I read, letting the words wash over me and be absorbed, I look for all the layers and nuance and color. Absolutely beautiful…(again).
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You are always so kind. Thank you!
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The “ready to brew” alert in your paired image is an apt lead-in … reader be ready to brew/brood words and implications that follow.
Blue has always been my favorite hue, still is, but since mid-life I’ve gotten comfortable with the harsher reds, oranges. Love the pairing “moonlight and bruises” (summons blue emotions) – and feel the energy in water scattering the blue – dispersing the melancholy.
Delightful read an a Monday!
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Thanks, Jazz. I enjoy these explorations into the ordinary. Of course the ordinary is extraordinary once you look at it! 😀
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I feel like I can touch those lines. Lovely piece.
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I’m pleased they resonate for you. Thank you.
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