I am taking a plein air pastel painting class this summer, so colors and values (the degree of light within hues) are more and more a part of me. Below, a poem that commenced to spontaneously write itself.
Today's Weather
by Marlene G. McNew
Oh for the the clarity of temperate skies,
softly focused light
illuminating stable horizons.
Periwinkle is away today.
Never mind grey.
A high contrast duel rages
locally
between self-pronounced sun
and it's opposite,
the absence of all light.
It feels like I am locked
in a tiny walled-in room
in which colors have been
straightjacketed into silence.
Bur, what of magenta or
the subtlety of reseda gray green?
Is naples yellow tainted?
Was burnt sienna only a dream?
I prefer to believe that
grey permeates the troposphere.
It is the unifying truth,
the glue that blends the neutrals
with the warm and cool values.
The clouds are blended puffs
of salmon, lavender, eggplant, cobalt blue.
They fly across the sky
in a changing dance
embracing storm,
on some days, sigh.
Perhaps weather is a state of mind,
an open gate,
in spite of blustery winds
in spite of blustery winds
a concert of all the hues,
warm, cool, neutral,
an embrace of the calm
within the storm.
within the storm.
