Monday 14 December 2009

Local colour

Walking the dog this morning the sky was just so amazing - so many different colours and partly made up of layers of of swirling cloud that gave an effect like marshmallow soup. It reminded me why so many painters and other visual artists live in places like this...it almost made me wish I was a painter too (for about 2 minutes).

It also reminded me of my wee Montrose poem (written not long after we moved to this part of Angus). The skies here are particularly stunning...the sea, the Montrose Basin...I guess all that water has something to do with it. The poem contains one Scots word (they creep in now and again - there was another poem with some Scots in back here). Anyway, here it is:


Looking up in Montrose

Here the sky has every blue
Cornflower, indigo, violet too
Every grey and pink and white
A different black for every night
What else on earth can you possibly need
With so much choice above your heid?


RF2005



p.s. I don't have a particular sky photo to post today but there are lots elsewhere (e.g. here).

x

14 comments:

Titus said...

Love the simplicity, and particularly,
"A different black for every night"

Another great title.

Niamh B said...

Enjoyed this, and the short poems in the last post. Yes the sky can be very unlikely looking at times, was pondering that very thing on a couple of long drives over the weekend...

Rachel Fox said...

Titus (in best Forrest Gump accent) I do simple real well. I walk like him too (see last post).

Niamh - yes and short poems work for shops too, eh? Love that fish one elsewhere just now.

x

The Weaver of Grass said...

Love it Rachel. We say the same about the view as we drive into our nearest little town - it is never the same twice. I sometimes wish I lived near the sea because it has such a quality of light.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Titus has beaten me to it,there is indeed a different black for every night but I never saw it in words before.Coolio, the skies unlimited!

WV is hooker, that's not me ,I'm certain it's not you either, it must be John Lee!

Rachel Fox said...

I must say, Weaver, I've never once regretted moving to live near the sea.

What a lovely comment, TFE. Isn't that part of what we try to do - put things into words that seem impossible to express?

x

Rachel Fox said...

Although I don't think I expressed that very well! Back to the poetry...
x

hope said...

I like the thought of different blacks for every night...makes night feel more special. Not just "dark". :)

Thank you for these brief gems. They're a mental vacation without making me feel like I should be moving along with my Christmas list.

Rachel Fox said...

I was a night bird for years...less so these days...but still a night lover.
x

Regina said...

Oh, this is lovely!
We had some lovely skies in FL when we lived there, esp. the sunsets... that's the only thing I miss about FL...;)
x

Deborah Godin/Cloud Messenger said...

Enjoyed the poem, and the info on the Scots word. The earliest Webster's Dictionary I recall from my parents house was copyrighted in the late 1940's, and it had a surprising (to me at least) number of unfamiliar words in it that were indentified as being from the Scots. Some were further defined as being "archaic" or not much in use (perhaps just not in the US!). I don't come across such terms much in my more recent Wester's editions. I suppose they got dropped off to make room for all the newer words.

A Cuban In London said...

Nature is the best painter there is and your poem honours that. Many thanks.

Greetings from London.

Rachel Fox said...

I have a separate little Scots/English dictionary, Deborah, to check up on this and that.

Yes, Cuban, some are brave enough to take on the challenge of painting our world. Not I...wordplay for me really.

x

Rachel Fox said...

Missed you RB! I've never seen a US sky...not yet anyway. One day...
x