Monday, September 13, 2010

Singing Colours on The Poetry Bus


Donovan and Joan Baez sing Colours at the Newport Folk Festival


Colours

Did we know that yellow was Jessamy* - not goldenrod, meline, or saffron?
Draped over soft pillows at morn, she was her very own special yellow.
Forever mellow in a sweet song,
Dawn after dawn after.

The blue blessing Jessamy's mornings - azure of the highest order high.
Sapphire changed to indigo later, and poured hues
Of bright claret from a sunset sky
Into Jessamy's glass.

The sparklin' corn at sunrise was green. Jess called the stalks virescent.
She loved shooting the fields in sepia, the colors all muted titian.
Jess kept those days of the dawn,
Long after long after.
  
MLydiaM ~ September 2010 


_________
*Jessamy defined in Colour Terms

 :::

I am late this week, running after TFE's Poetry Bus just hoping I can still get on board. This week Marion asked us to write a poem about a color.....read her prompt and other poems HERE.


.

21 comments:

Fireblossom said...

The thing I remember most about Joan is that I wanted her hair. (I was made to have short hair...more practical). I like to think now that i could spot a sister, even at the age of nine! Ha!

I have always been a huge Donovan fan. "Colours" is a song that has really grown on me through the years, and has become a favorite of mine. I had never heard this duet. I was glad to hear him sing it like himself, this being the era when he was being sold as the "Scottish Bob Dylan" and sang accordingly. He did throw in the cheesy harmonica bit though. But the song is so simply beautiful, especially with Joan's clear voice, that I really enjoyed hearing it this morning. :-)

Roxana said...

oh i don't know what i love here most, to be lost in these endless colours and hues, to be lost in such music, to paint Jess in my mind... simply lovely
(and an amazing colour link, thank you for that as well)

Bubba said...

With so many color names here, I'm having flash-backs to Ken Nordine's "Colors" beat-poems.

(On which I based my own collection of color poems @ my stop for this week's bus ride)


WORD VERIFICATION: patioc
DEFINITION: what's found between patiob and patiod

Peter Goulding said...

The song and the poem work very well together. I like this very much.

Lydia said...

Fireblossom~ Huge Donovan fan here replying to your comments! The duet was new to me also and I thought it was beautiful. It's a bummer you were restricted to short hair. Mine was long like hers some years later than this photo of Joan. She and I share the same birthday, but not year!

Roxana~ When I read your comments I felt so good about just about every little thing in my day. Thank you. :)

Eric Alder~ Thank you for your comments and for mentioning Nordine's poem. I do not think I have read it and will find it later online. I look forward to reading your colors poem. (Very funny stuff with the word ver!)

Peter Goulding~ I am so glad that you think so! Makes me happy.

Niamh B said...

This is beautiful Lydia, not all the words are familiar but the sound of them alone creates an aura.
beautiful poem

Batteson.Ind said...

ahhh... someone recently told me I sonuded like joan baez... I was a little bit confused, lol! and Donovan now lives over here in a town about half an hours drive from us, I've never met him though! Your poem is absolutely gorgeous, something very restful about it :-)

Rachel Fox said...

Lovely version of this song. Really lovely...and I don't always like her voice.
x

Doc FTSE said...

And it's a big deal because you're here, Lydia, writing these lovely poems. Is the "Jess" referred to the same person as "Jesse" in "Jesse, Come Home" on the album "Diamonds and Rust" "Jesse, Come Home" has been known to reduce Big Strong Doctor to a weeping ruin!
Keep the poems coming>

Marion said...

I love this!! I used to steal my older sister's Donovan albums. He was my 60's favorite, by far. Thanks for riding the Poetry Bus with me. Blessings!

Erratic Thoughts said...

Ohh Lovely especially "sparklin' corn at sunrise was green" and other colors melded so be-su-ti-fu-lly...I always thot why is a blessing blue, but whenever I think of it that's the color that comes to my mind!
Like always I loved your version of the song!

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

Hi there regular readers

I’m really sorry to have to tell you that due to circumstances beyond my control Don’t Feed The Pixies has had to be deleted and will probably be gone by the time you read this.

I had gone to pains to keep my name off the web and had changed the names and places of those involved where speaking about someone or something – but it seems that I have not been careful enough and so to protect myself from any future problems I have had to quit the site.

Thank you for providing light in a tunnel of dullness. I came to the blog world in hope of finding others out there who I might have something in common with, or were just other lost souls looking for new ideas and new thoughts – I have enjoyed meeting you all.

I am not sure whether this blog will continue in any other form. Thank you for visiting

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

ok - i just wanted you to know how inspiring and refreshing i have found visiting your blog. it has brought me much interest and amusement, i love your old postcards and i am so proud to have met you, even if online.

People like you keep me fighting - i think you have my email and hope you will keep in touch whatever happens

Lydia said...

Niamh B~ I am complimented that you enjoyed the poem without knowing every word. That happens for me sometimes when I use the translator but not every word is understood. I appreciate your comments. :)

the watercats~ I will listen to your recordings again for that Joan Baez quality. :) So Donovan is practically a neighbor of yours! That is really something amazing to me! I hope you get a chance to meet him so he can get a chance to hear your sounds!
Thanks; the poem was relaxing to write but I hadn't thought of it that way until your comment.

Rachel Fox~ The version is special, I agree. Thanks much for stopping by.

Doc FTSE~ You too? Jesse just kills me. "Weeping ruin" is a great way to describe it. Where I had not thought of Jesse when writing the poem, there is a synchronicity to it. Thank you for your kind comments; they are a big deal to me. :)

Marion~ That is so cool that you used to steal the albums to listen to and that he was your favorite of those times. I only had his greatest hits....on 8-track tape of all things!
Thanks again for a great ride this week.

Erratic Thoughts~ Your comments were so kind and much appreciated. Blue blessings to you. :)

Lydia said...

****Don't Feed the Pixies~

I have been in quite a state of sadness all the day long since reading your comments early in the afternoon. It is a terrible thing to lose your blog in the blogosphere, and was the last thing I would have expected. So sudden and shocking to learn that you felt you must do this to protect yourself. I have loved the creative spot you made for your readers.....was so enjoying each installment of your amazing story, and it is awful not knowing how it ends!

Perhaps you will decide to make your blog private and if so I hope you will invite me in. As luck would have it I do have your email address and will be in touch. I consider you a friend and bright spot in my life. Please take good care of yourself and be safe in all regards.

Love,
Lydia

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

I loved the poem! Not only because it uses the name I have been given, but because it conjures up so many images and the way it engages with the song.

Jessamy

Lydia said...

SmitoniusAndSonata~ You are a for-real Jessamy?! I'm so excited that you somehow found your way to my blog to read my poem. Consider it yours then, dedicated to you. I thought it would make such a beautiful name...and it does! (I may use it in future writing because the character seemed real to me as I wrote the poem.)

Rhiannon said...

"They call me mellow yellow"...a song by Donovan and a "color" also. I loved "Jennifer" and also a song he sang once on the Smothers Brothers show with Jennifer Warnes "Time is on the run" a great song about "life"...I'll see if I can find it on youtube...I saw it once there...you'd love it.

Rhi

Lydia said...

Rhi~ Seems like we loved the same Donovan songs...except I have not heard the one with Jennifer Warnes (she is so wonderful) so I will check for it. Thank you. :)

Totalfeckineejit said...

Lovely, Lydia, just lovely!

Lydia said...

Totalfeckineejit~ Aw, thanks so much, Bus Boss. :)

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