Brick Red
Brick red,
color or home,
security, safety.
The smart little
pig built his house
out of red bricks
and outsmarted
the big bad wolf.
My house is built
out of red bricks too.
Strong red bricks
don't keep cancer out.
Victoria Hendricks
May14, 2010
Carnation Pink
I don't understand why
mythological little girls
like pink, but I did, still do,
not with my adult aesthetic,
which selects moss green,
deep violet, vermilion, indigo
but with some inner instinct
which, when the censors
are off, grabs carnation
pink roses, night gowns,
stationary, fabrics, soap,
too many times to deny that
this little girl still likes pink.
Victoria Hendricks
May 14, 2010
Oh, your "Brick Red" poem is so strong, Victoria. It would be nice if bricks COULD protect us from so many dreadful things.
ReplyDeleteYour poem about pink made me smile, as little Mya loves pink. I do not know how it happens that little girls happen to like this color. Perhaps because so many times parents put this color on their little girls that eventually the children associate it with who THEY are. Pink was, I think, the first color that Mya could NAME.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, Mary and Diane. Those poems flowed out easily in relation to the colors on paper. Writing alot and in the middle of the night seems to do that - increase flow. The color prompts bring up unexpected memories and associations - especially the brick red. and Mary, I think you may have hit on little girls learning to associate pink withourselves because our parents dress us in it.
ReplyDeletethe ending of brick red hit me like, well, like a ton of bricks. i love endings like that, poetically speaking. they break my heart in real life.
ReplyDeleteThanks Carolee - the distinction between poetry appreciation real life personal response is interesting. Assurance that there is no cancer in our house right now. It took my first husband many years ago.
ReplyDeleteNice work, on both. I agree with Carolee about that ending too. Unexpected turns like that bring strength to a poem, certainly. While I also appreciate poems as the second, which are content within themselves, simply to express the ordinary yet intimate. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteVictoria, I couldn't really add more except I agree with Carolee and Neil about the surprise ending of the first and the confession of liking pink is sweet.
ReplyDelete