27 November 2013

Shades of Grey



Today,
snow laden
clouds, low slung, blur
boundaries of earth
and sky. Grey sky
melds to grey hills,
all features fused shades
of grey, indistinct,
straight grey patterns
where vineyards grew
yesterday,
soft grey mounds
of olive groves.
Limbo, lost
between here and there,
a place of waiting,
ready to move on,
but not able,
separated
from here,
there sighted
yet denied.


Prompted by Kerry over at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads who posted evocative B & W photos and had us writing in B & W or shades of grey. Photo taken from my balcony.

22 comments:

  1. I love the texture you achieved in these lines:
    straight grey patterns
    where vineyards grew
    yesterday..

    Your poem has a lot in common with black and white photography - it could picture the scene you have described.

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    1. Great prompt, Kerry, perfectly coinciding with our dreadful weather so uncharacteristic for here.

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  2. I really enjoy the portion that describes the sleeping olive mounds...great writing!

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    1. It's odd to try to identify our usual terrain.

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  3. You have snow deep enough to have gray tinges. I am amazed! I could see the lush olive groves in your poem, now hidden under snow. Fantastic!

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    1. Snow is not usual here and it's covering our lovely tree and vines.

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  4. One of the more trying aspects of winter for me is this greyness and almost complete absence of tonal variation--we get very little of it here, as our skies are blue most days of the year, but I remember it well up north as a young person. You recreate that lead-colored mood well here.

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    1. Thanks, Hedge, we don't get much of it here either but these last couple of days of snow and clouds have obliterated variation and affected my mood. Bad combo.

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  5. This is a little meditation on time!

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  6. Wow. You are having snow? I am impressed... just in time for Thanksgiving. Amazing! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Mary. :-)

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    1. I'm impressed too but not in a good way! Today the sun is shining and it's 46 degrees so it will melt. I'm glad. Yes, Happy Thanksgiving to you as well DJan, I'm grateful for you in my life.

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  7. Replies
    1. The picture is so dramatically different than my usual view.

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  8. This winter's pause--its "limbo"--is perfect for the prompt. A note of color would have destroyed it. - Brendan

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    1. Thanks, Brendan, for your kind words. No color to be seen other than our neighbor's apartment.

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  9. it snowed on us the whole way here last night...mostly light and blowing, but a few heavy rather treacherous moments...i love how the snow on the mountains makes them pop...this season though def has a heaviness of memory...

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    1. Today the mountains have popped but the last few days- invisible.

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  10. Denied, but....only temporarily.

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    1. You're right and it's good to remind myself...

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  11. living in Canada one gets used to the grey moments of winter.. well almost... :)

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    1. I know just what you mean after growing up in Boston and living in Maine for 5 1/2 years before Antigua and Italy.

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