The Colour Black…

Forty-five years ago I declared myself as an artist on the pavements of France.  Last Friday I declared myself as a poet at the opening night of the Dominica Literature Festival.  My daughter Tania – the real poet in the family - was also selected to read.  Unfortunately, she came down with a virus and had to stand down.  The Dominica Writers’ Guild had asked for submission on the theme of colour.   Tania’s unread poem was titled, The Colour Of Her Soul and mine, The Colour Black.  

Black,

At a cursory glance

All shades are reduced to just that.

But to the painter, poet and lover

A hundred hues compete,

With the jet of her cane-row hair

And the pale saffron soles of her feet.

 

Put aside your tubes of Scarlet Lake,

And erase cloy similes of peach. 

Look instead at freshly tilled earth

Or a wave-washed volcanic sand beach.

Cinnamon bark and breadfruit leaf,

Coffee beans in the warmth of the sun.

These tints her whole being encapsulates,

With nature’s own colours, she’s one.

From the dark areola of her breast

Brown madder and yellow ochre merge. 

While sienna reds and blues subdued

In deep purple shadows converge.

Bold washes from her shoulders run

To trace the curve of her spine,

Elsewhere they accumulate

To hide a forested secret - that’s mine!

False mascara need not disguise

The warm sepia bloom of her cheek.

And applied loud rouge cannot improve

On rust-red coral - to her lips unique.

Just as her spirit cannot be bound,

To the pallid accepted norm.

Nor can the colours with which she abounds

Deny the race to which she was born.

Thus, to mellow tones my muse awakes

With shades of the islands beneath her feet.

With fervent passion I respond,

My sketch from life is complete.  

I dedicated the poem to Denise, my wife and model. Denise courageously read the work on stage.  A daunting task when your audience includes some of the Caribbean’s finest poets and writers.  Today’s picture shows Denise in her more familiar role, encompassing all shades of The Colour Black.