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In my Spiritual Newsletter for this month, I mediated a bit upon the skies. I find it interesting that we can travel to a place only a few miles from our home and yet the skies can be a brighter blue or maybe a more solemn blue, at least as we see it through our eyes. Today, I contemplated the color blue – a color prevalent in nature – the heavens and the waters all appearing some shade of blue. I enjoy gazing at a magnificent sky or a lake as the sun reflects on it; it is relaxing for me. Yet, when we speak of the emotion “blue,” we are implying a mood that is rather somber.
Blue is calming. It can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly. Almost everyone likes some shade of the color blue.
~~Jacci Howard Bear
Calming, strong, steadfast, light and friendly – blue
The cool, calming effect of blue makes time pass more quickly and it can help you sleep. Blue is a good color for bedrooms. However, too much blue could dampen spirits.
~~Jacci Howard Bear
Cool, aids in sleeping, too much dampens spirits – blue
Just as seeing red alludes to the strong emotions invoked by the color red, feeling blue or getting the blues represents the extremes of the calm feelings associated with blue, i.e. sadness or depression, lack of strong (violent) emotion. Dark blue is sometimes seen as staid or stodgy — old-fashioned.
~~Jacci Howard Bear
sadness, depression, lack of strong emotion, staid or stodgy – blue
As I reflected upon this, I remember that when storms come, the sky changes colors to a dark gray, maybe a violet color, or black. When I was a child, a tornado passed through the town of my residence, just before the skies turned black, they went from blue to orange in color. The lack of strong emotion instantly changed as the blue faded to orange then to a fierce black.
In Iran, blue is the ‘color of mourning,’ while in the West the ‘something blue’ bridal tradition represents love.
~~Jacci Howard Bear
In the many cultures, blue eyes are regarded as beautiful. Often, we hear the expression, “She has the prettiest blue eyes.” “Once in a blue moon” refers to a rare event. In times past, a blue moon was a synonym for absurdity - considered to be as likely as the moon being made out of green cheese.*
Blue food is a rare occurrence in nature. There are no leafy blue vegetables (blue lettuce?), no blue meats (blueburger, well-done please), and aside from blueberries and a few blue-purple potatoes from remote spots on the globe, blue just doesn't exist in any significant quantity as a natural food color.
Consequently, we don't have an automatic appetite response to blue. Furthermore, our primal nature avoids food that are poisonous. A million years ago, when our earliest ancestors were foraging for food, blue, purple and black were "color warning signs" of potentially lethal food.**
What an interesting thought! Though the sky and waters are blue in appearance, few other things are blue in nature.
A non-stimulating appetite response, a warning sign of poison – blue
As I am writing this newsletter, I notice a book on my desktop recently purchased on eBay. I ordered this book to learn to use HTML. Using HTML is often intimidating to many of us and the book could be a source of stress. The cover of the book is designed in white and a calming blue. I wonder if the publishers did their homework about the calming effect of blue. The cover seems to ease my mind regarding the task at hand.
The color of the sky and the ocean, blue is one of the most popular colors. It causes the opposite reaction as red. Peaceful, tranquil blue causes the body to produce calming chemicals, so it is often used in bedrooms. Blue can also be cold and depressing. Fashion consultants recommend wearing blue to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty. People are more productive in blue rooms. Studies show weightlifters are able to handle heavier weights in blue gyms.***
Peaceful, tranquil, produces calming chemicals in the body, cold, symbolizes loyalty and productivity – blue
Understanding the use of imagery in poetry is essential for a comprehension of the overall meaning. Images are essentially word-pictures and they usually work by a method of association. This means that the images are created by associations that we make as readers within the linguistic context of the text. For example, the word "red" immediately creates an image or picture of the color red in our minds. This color is associated or has connotations with other feelings or images, like anger, and this increases the depth of the poem. The important thing to remember is that the images are an instrument that the poet uses to express his or her intentions or feelings. Understanding the use of images means understanding the essential meaning of the poem. Think of images as useful "tools" that the poet uses in order to reveal or explain the meaning that is in the poem.*****
We have discussed some the images and moods created by blue. As poets, we use words in imagery to portray, much as the artist uses the brush and paints. The following poem is a great example of a poet employing the imagery of blue.
Bavarian Gentians
Not every man has gentians in his house
in Soft September, at slow, Sad Michaelmas.
Bavarian gentians, big and dark, only dark
darkening the daytime torchlike with the smoking blueness of Pluto's
gloom,
ribbed and torchlike, with their blaze of darkness spread blue
down flattening into points, flattened under the sweep of white day
torch-flower of the blue-smoking darkness, Pluto's dark-blue daze,
black lamps from the halls of Dis, burning dark blue,
giving off darkness, blue darkness, as Demeter's pale lamps give off
light,
lead me then, lead me the way.
Reach me a gentian, give me a torch
let me guide myself with the blue, forked torch of this flower
down the darker and darker stairs, where blue is darkened on blueness.
even where Persephone goes, just now, from the frosted September
to the sightless realm where darkness was awake upon the dark
and Persephone herself is but a voice
or a darkness invisible enfolded in the deeper dark
of the arms Plutonic, and pierced with the passion of dense gloom,
among the splendor of torches of darkness, shedding darkness on the
lost bride and groom.
~~ “Bavarian Gentians” by David Herbert (D.H.) Lawrence
As a challenge, write a poem using the imagery of blue in some way. If you post your poem in the following forum, I will highlight it in the April 22 edition of the Poetry Newsletter.
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Jacci Howard Bear quotes come from http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/blue.htm
Challenge: Write a poem about blue. If you choose to write about the ‘mood’ blue, use metaphor and/or simile imagery to relate the mood to the color blue.
* http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/269500.html
** http://www.colormatters.com/appmatters.html
*** http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html
**** http://www.readprint.com/article-5
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Last month, I discussed "The Cleave Poem" . Following are Cleave poems written in response to the newsletter:
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Comments for last month's issue regarding the Cleave poem.Thanks to each one of you who take time to read the weekly Poetry Newsletter.
The Poetry Newsletter team:
Stormy Lady 
Red Writing Hood <3
larryp
and our guest editors
plainsue  writes:
A cleave poem..is very trickey..very creative. Thanks for introducing it to me.
I agree completely with your brief summary of the Cleave form, Plain Sue and am honored to be able to introduce such forms in the newsletter. ~~Larry
orca11 writes:
That one was brilliant. I never thought you can write poetry like that. Apparently I was wrong. I'll have tto test that experiment out.{c}
I agree, Orca; the Cleave form is brilliant. Do try the form, it is difficult, as many have found, but quite rewarding.
Thaddeus Buxton Winthrop  writes:
Larry,
This is a fascinating style! As you said, challenging and rewarding is indeed worth a try.
Thanks for all of your insight and hard work!
Frank
Frank - many seem to agree with your comments. Let me encourage you to give the form a try. Send me a link if you decide to write one; I know you can do it.~~Larry
monty31802 writes:
Great newsletter Larry, showing poetry forms are created by poets taking license from the norm.
I agree Monty that this is a step away from the norm and thanks for your kind comments and for moderating one of the longest running poetry contests on writing.com.~~Larry
runningwolf04 writes:
Once again, a fabulous newsletter! Keep it up... I always learn so much when reading your articles...
Thank you SRoses. I also learn much when doing the research for the articles.Thanks for you kind comments. ~~Larry
Spooky, Cute & staiNed  writes:
Wow! now that is a form and a half. I gotta try it.
Thanks Larry!
I love your enthusiam Staine!
Red Writing Hood <3 writes:
What an interesting poetry form. Thanks for sharing,
Red Writing Hood - Coming from one who shares many forms, this is a compliment indeed. ~~Larry
Outasync writes:
A fascinating form, but not new. There is an eighteenth century example here:
http://recycledknowledge.blogspot.com/2007/08/down-vs-across.html
Outasync, thanks for giving the link. I did read the poem - a poem that goes back more than a few years into the history of the US. I wish I knew more about the author and the specific circumstances under which it was written. Indeed it is the form introduced in the Cleave poem, so it appears not to be an original concept by the young poet who introduced it to us. In my bio block, I have a quote stating that the ancients stole all my original thoughts. Seems this may be the case here. I once heard a pastor say that he had two teams on his staff - one who formulated the plans and the other who was able to institute them. Seems one poet formulated and another named the form and introduced it as a form that others could attempt. Both deserve recognition.~~Larry
Fyn  writes:
Thanking you for the article about cleave poems. Awesome, complicated concept, but I love how the whole thing changes. Thanking you as well, for using one of my poems *smile* Great Newsletter, Larry!
Special Thanks: Fyn for mentioning the Cleave form in your last Poetry Newsletter and for struggling to complete a very good Cleave poem. ~~Larry
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Poetry: March 25, 2009 Issue [#2967]
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