ALONE ON A WINDY RIDGE: Blue is the colour

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Blue is the colour

...of my day. Not the blue of low-spirits or any of blue's other sad notes, but more the blue of flame. Apart from jeans, blue is not a colour I generally wear. I don't dream in blue. I rarely think in blue. When I look at a place I always look beyond its blues for something warmer. It baffles me then that I'd spend the day painting a canvas blue. Blue!

Blue colours "San Sepolcro", a poem by Jorie Graham which speaks of the Madonna del Parto, a fresco by Piero della Francesca. It's comforting to think that back in 1467 an artist spent his days thinking in and around blue, a blue that entered the mind of Graham in the late 1900s and came out in words. Those words run through my mind to this moment.

It would be wonderful to go to Italy just to follow the Piero della Francesca Trail to see this fresco.

3 comments:

Ariel Gordon said...: Thanks for the intro to Graham. I how-do-you-do-ed his poem all day...; 3/3/05 10:48 PM
Ariel Gordon said...: I stand (and sit) corrected.

Though I made the acquaintance of the poem, I apparently couldn't pick the author out of a line-up...but I'm sure Ms. Graham would forgive me.; 3/3/05 10:55 PM
Brenda Schmidt said...: :)
A poet I admire introduced me to Graham's work a few years ago. I have Never, Swarm, and The Errancy, wonderfully challenging books all three.; 3/3/05 11:00 PM

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