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Hailstones
and Halibut Bones
by
Mary O'Neill
The Colors live between black
and white
in a land that we know best by
sight.
But knowing best isn't
everything,
for colors dance and colors
sing,
and colors laugh and colors cry
-- -- --
Turn off the light and colors
die,
and they make you feel every
feeling there is
from the grumpiest grump to the
fizziest fizz.
And you and you and I know well
each has a taste and each has a
smell
and each has a wonderful story
to tell...
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What Is
Purple?
Time is purple just
before night
when most people turn
on the light -- --
but if you don't it's a beautiful sight.
Asters are purple, there's purple ink.
Purple's more popular than you think...
it's sort of a great Grandmother to
pink.
There are purple shadows and
purple veils,
some ladies purple their fingernails.
There's purple jam and purple jell
and a purple bruise next
day will tell
where you
landed when you fell.
The purple feeling is rather put-out
the purple look is a definite pout.
But the purple sound is
the loveliest thing
It's a violet opening in
the spring.
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What
Is Gold?
Gold is a metal, Gold is a ring,
Gold is a very beautiful thing.
Gold is the sunshine light and thin
warm as a muffin on your skin.
Gold is the moon, Gold are the stars;
Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Mars,
Gold is the color of clover honey
Gold is a certain kind of money.
Gold is alive in a flickering fish
that lives its life in a crystal dish.
Gold is the answer to many a wish.
Gold is feeling like a King
it's like having the most of everything --
long time ago I was told
yellow's mother's name is Gold...
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What
Is Black?
Black is kind, it covers up
the run-down street, the broken cup.
Black is charcoal and patio grill,
the soot spots on the window sill.
Black is a feeling hard to explain
like suffering but without the pain.
Black is licorice and patent leather shoes
Black is the print in the news.
Black is beauty in its deepest form,
the darkest cloud in a thunderstorm.
Think of what starlight and lamplight would lack,
diamonds and fireflies, if they couldn't lean against Black...
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What
Is Brown?
Brown is the color of a country road,
back of a turtle, back of a toad.
Brown is cinnamon and morning toast
and the good smell of the Sunday roast.
Brown is the color of work and the sound of a river,
Brown is bronze and a bow and a quiver.
Brown is the house on the edge of town
where wind is tearing the shingles down.
Brown is a freckle, Brown is a mole
Brown is the Earth when you dig a hole.
Brown is the hair on many a head
Brown is chocolate and gingerbread.
Brown is a feeling you get inside
when wondering makes
your mind grow wide.
Brown is a leather shoe
and a good glove -- --
Brown is as comfortable as love.
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What
Is Blue?
Blue is a heron, a sapphire ring,
you can smell blue in many a thing:
Gentian and Larkspur, forget-me-nots, too.
And if you listen you can hear blue
in wind over water
and wherever flax blooms
and when evening steps into lonely rooms.
Cold is blue; flame shot from a welding torch
Is, too
hot, wild, screaming, blistering blue
and on winter mornings the dawns are blue...
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What is Gray?
Gray is the color of an elephant and a
mouse
and a falling apart house.
it's fog and smog, fine print and lint,
it's a hush and the bubbling of oatmeal
mush.
Tiredness and oysters, both are gray,
smoke swirls and grandmother curls.
So are some spring coats and nannygoats.
Eagles are gray and a rainy day
the sad look of a slum and chewing gum
Wood ash and linen crash.
Pussywillows are gray in a velvety way.
Suits, shoes and bad news,
beggars' hats
and alley cats,
Skin of a mole and a worn slipper sole.
Content is gray and sleepiness, too
they wear gray suede gloves
when they're
touching you...
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What Is
White?
White is a dove and lily of the valley
and a puddle of milk spilled in an alley
-- --
a ship's sail, a kite's tail, a wedding
veil
Hailstones and halibut bones
and some people's telephones.
The hottest and most blinding light is
white.
And breath is white
when you blow it out
on a frosty night.
White is the shining absence of all color
then absence is white, out of touch, out
of sight.
White is marshmallow and vanilla ice cream
and the part you can't remember in a
dream.
White is the sound of a light foot walking
White is the beautiful broken lace
of snowflakes falling on your face.
You can smell white in a country room
toward the end of May in the cherry bloom.
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What is
Orange?
Orange is a tiger lily, a carrot,
a feather from a parrot, a flame,
the wildest color you can name.
Orange is a happy day saying good-by
in a sunset that shocks
the sky.
Orange is brave, Orange is
bold,
it's bittersweet and
marigold.
Orange is zip, Orange is
dash,
the brightest stripe in a
Roman sash.
Orange is an orange, also
a mango
Orange is music of the
tango.
Orange is the fur of the
fiery fox,
the brightest crayon in
the box.
And in the fall when the leaves are
turning
Orange is the smell of a
bonfire burning...
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What is
Red?
Red is a sunset, blazy and bright.
Red is feeling brave with all your might.
Red is a sunburn spot on your nose,
sometimes red is a red, red rose.
Red squiggles out when you cut your hand.
Red is a brick and a rubber band.
Red is a hotness you get inside
when you're embarrassed and want to hide
firecracker, fire engine, fire flicker --
--
and when you're angry red runs through
your head.
Red is an Indian, a Valentine heart,
the trimming on a circus cart.
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What is
Pink?
Pink is the color of a rose.
They come in other colors but everyone
knows
pink is the mother-color of a rose.
Pink is a new baby, the inside of a shell..
Pink is a cooked shrimp and a Canterbury
bell.
Pink is peachbloom, gauzy... frail
the wind's exquisite wedding veil.
Pink is a bonbon, pink is a blush,
some Easter bunnies are pink plush.
If you stand in an orchard In the middle of Spring
and you don't make a sound you can hear pink sing,
a darling, whispery song of a thing.
Pink is the beautiful little sister of red
my teacher said,
and a ribbon girls tie round their head.
Pink is the sash with the lovely fold
your remember when you're old.
Pink is the flower on a lady's hat
that nods and bows this way and that.
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What
is Green?
Green is the grass and the leaves of trees
Green is the smell of a country breeze.
Green is lettuce and sometimes the sea.
When green is a feeling you pronounce it
N. V.
Green is a coolness you get in the shade
of the tall old woods where the moss is
made.
Green is a flutter that comes in Spring
when frost melts out of everything.
Green is a grasshopper, Green is jade
Green is hiding in the shade -- -- --
Green is an olive and a pickle.
The sound of Green is a water trickle
Green is the world after the rain,
bathed
and beautiful again.
April is green, peppermint too.
Every elf has one Green shoe.
Under a grape arbor air is green
with sprinkles of sunlight in between.
Green is the meadow, Green is the fuzz
that covers up where winter was
Green is ivy and honeysuckle vine.
Green is yours, Green is mine...
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What
Is Yellow?
Yellow is the color of the sun, the feeling of fun,
the yolk of an egg, a duck's bill,
a canary bird and a
daffodil.
Yellow's sweet corn, ripe oats,
hummingbirds' little throats
Summer squash and Chinese silk
the cream on top of Jersey milk
dandelions and daisy hearts,
custard pies
and lemon tarts.
Yellow blinks on summer nights
in the off
and on of firefly lights.
Yellow's a topaz, a candle flame.
Felicity's a yellow name.
Yellow's mimosa, and I guess,
yellow is the color of happiness.
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