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Sep 30
poem 4 comments
Icestorm

Painter's Sun

painter's sun recording.m4a
You think you know
the color of the sun
until you sit down
to paint it.

You reach for the yellow,
yellow of sunflowers,
of a cliché crayon drawing you did,
a perfect lemon in the top right corner.

But your hand drifts then
to sparks on the crest of a wave,
to that glimpse of melting iridescence
in a friend's eye-white.

Orange is the bottle you finally seize
to squeeze autumn leaves,
the setting sun over a lake,
onto your impatient palette.

But soon, all those colors
(plus a few more)
are spilled on the canvas
(plus your fingers).

You think you know
the color of the sun
until you realize
you don’t know colors at all.

Who else can validate
that your ocean is truly blue,
that your sun is the gold
you’ve always been sure of?

After all,
everything is perception
and if you think too much about anything
it doesn’t exist at all.

So you sit down again
and this time
dip in your brush
and paint the sun

every color you own.

 
Audio download:
painter's sun recording.m4a
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Posted: 09.30.18
About the Author: Icestorm
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Discussion

Comments

  1. irishjayne
    Oct 01, 2018

    The descriptive language you have in here is beautiful, and really captures that feeling of unsureness. I loved the ending, and how the "you" character defined the sun for for themselves.

    Courtney McDermott

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  1. William
    Oct 02, 2018

    I enjoyed this poem. It had a smooth flow as it worked its way to the ending, which was a crackling good twist. One thing I might suggest is removing the last two lines of the third-last stanza. I thought this assertion took some energy out of the poem, which overall has a marvelous sense of discovery and new horizons.

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  1. gg
    Jan 08, 2019

    My favorite line in this wonderful poem: "and if you think too much about anything
    it doesn’t exist at all." Such an interesting concept. Makes me think. And I thank you for that.
    gg

    YWP founder. Current work: Instagram, Mastodon and https://geoffreygevalt.com
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  1. gg
    Jan 08, 2019

    I should add that I love the audio; you do your poem proud.

    YWP founder. Current work: Instagram, Mastodon and https://geoffreygevalt.com
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