[ross hamilton hill]

This is a bit off topic but follows on from Rimbaud's poem and it's ideas.
I don't think vowels have colours when in words since the consonants frame words (except 'I', 'a', and 'Oh') and the pronoun 'I' and the article 'a' are used so often that I can't asociate any colours with them. If you tried to assign a colour to a word you'd probably drive yourself mad.
Van Gogh was interested in the correspondence between notes (in his case on the piano) and colours. This sort of correspondence is common in Western occultism, and you can see lists in books on Western magic relating colours to signs, emotions, sephorith and gemstones etc. Baudelaire was interested in these and wrote a poem called 'Correspondences'
Some people see sounds (particularly music) as colours and shapes. But I don't know if there is any consensus in how sounds are perceived and with words it would depend on the tone of voice.

ps sorry I did want to copy Baudelaire's poem (and it's translation) but couldn't. It's on the net, worth a look.

[Gregory Dowling]

Here's a very free but ingenious version of the Rimbaud sonnet by John Fuller, from his book-length poem, The Illusionists, in the Eugene Onegin stanza:

A: swart as Alabama mammas
Aghast at Arrabal's drama, tar,
A Madagascan sans pajamas,
Black mass, and Sagan's dark cafard.
E: perfect teeth, sheets, eggs, tents, cheeses,
Endless Decembers, new deep-freezes.
I: vivid tiling, prickling hips,
Lightning in Spring, pink smiling lips.
U: just cut turf (smug thumbs-up suburb),
Burst thumb (such pus), bush's plump bud,
Sputum (lung's mucus), tumulus, cud,
Fungus, butt's scum, surf's rush, surf's hubbub,
O: ghosts, ohms (off / on), porno book,
Photo-room's glow or God's cool look.

[Roger Slater]

Blue Winter
by Robert Francis

Winter uses all the blues there are.
One shade of blue for water, one for ice,
Another blue for shadows over snow.
The clear or cloudy sky uses blue twice-
Both different blues. And hills row after row
Are colored blue according to how far.
You know the bluejay's double-blur device
Shows best when there are no green leaves to show.
And Sirius is a winterbluegreen star.

[Roger Slater]

(Emily Dickinson)

Nature rarer uses yellow
Than another hue;
Saves she all of that for sunsets,—
Prodigal of blue,

Spending scarlet like a woman,
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly,
Like a lover’s words.

[Maryann Corbett]

Thank you so much, everybody. These are all wonderful, and most are new to me. I confess my favorite so far is the Wetzsteon (which book, Gregory?)

It's a bit long to post, but here's a link to some more green: William Logan's translation along with the original Spanish of Romance Sonambulo

[Gregory Dowling]

It's Sakura Park - which is colourful throughout, in fact.

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

Mauve, Black, and Rose

Mauve, black, and rose,
The veils of the jewel, and she, the jewel, a rose.

First, the pallor of mauve,
A soft flood flowing about the body I love.

Then, the flush of the rose,
A hedge of roses about the mystical rose.

Last, the black, and at last
The feet that I love, and the way that my love has passed.


—Arthur Symons

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

Harlem Sweeties

Have you dug the spill
Of Sugar Hill?
Cast your gims
On this sepia thrill:
Brown sugar lassie,
Caramel treat,
Honey-gold baby
Sweet enough to eat.
Peach-skinned girlie,
Coffee and cream,
Chocolate darling
Out of a dream.
Walnut tinted
Or cocoa brown,
Pomegranate-lipped
Pride of the town.
Rich cream-colored
To plum-tinted black,
Feminine sweetness
In Harlem’s no lack.
Glow of the quince
To blush of the rose.
Persimmon bronze
To cinnamon toes.
Blackberry cordial,
Virginia Dare wine—
All those sweet colors
Flavor Harlem of mine!
Walnut or cocoa,
Let me repeat:
Caramel, brown sugar,
A chocolate treat.
Molasses taffy,
Coffee and cream,
Licorice, clove, cinnamon
To a honey-brown dream.
Ginger, wine-gold,
Persimmon, blackberry,
All through the spectrum
Harlem girls vary—
So if you want to know beauty’s
Rainbow-sweet thrill,
Stroll down luscious,
Delicious, fine Sugar Hill.

—Langston Hughes

(Ha, compare to the poem I just found here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poet...ine/poem/29657 )

[Gail White]

Thank you, Curtis!

I truly believe that SOMEONE on the Sphere can find ANYTHING.

[RCL]

For a plethora of purple poems, go here:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/purple/