That most fa-BLUE-lous of women, Ms. Cyndi Bookchick, just posted about her eternal color love, blue, and while I’m mostly noted as a whopping fool for unlimited color of every kind, I am, among those multitudes, deeply fond of all shades, tints, and hues of the blues. So with that friendly little bump from Cyndi’s blue-sky moment, I am moved to share some pretty blues with alla youse.
Burning in Midwinter
Turquoise of the hottest hue
(A word not often linked with blue)
Bears in its heart the sun’s true fire
From its desert home, where it may transpire
Even in this day of detachment, cool
And belief in only the Facts of school,
That mystic magic and alchemy
Still stalk abroad and begin to be
Unearthed in windstorm when the stone
Under the sand is polished, blown
To visibly capturing sun’s wild rays
To give bold turquoise stone such blaze
Art-Colored Glasses 
Blue is, obviously, my most beloved and utmost favourite colour as well. Turquoise being one of my favourite shades, I must say your poem illuminated its brilliance.
Also, what beautiful photography…the wonders of our world.
‘Wonders of our world’ indeed–all of these photos, though stashed in the same file, came from very different times and places and were never thought of together until Cyndi moved me to think of the conundrum of ‘hot blue’ and suddenly they all stood out from the ranks as partners of a sort. It’s one of the magical things about color in general, for me–as I know you can tell from so many of my posts having almost color-coded groups of pictures.
You aren’t a December baby like me, by any chance? I sometimes wonder if my longtime love of turquoise is partly connected to my knowing from early that that is one of the month’s designated birthstones.
Ah I see. Colors are indeed such a big part of our lives, of art, really. And your art, Kathryn, I can never get enough of.
Interestingly enough, I was born in October…so Topaz was my birthstone. It’s funny because my favourite colour was yellow for the longest time – and I was given a beautiful topaz necklace etched with diamonds a few years ago – but in the end, blue prevailed. Strange, huh.
This post just gives me a quiver in my liver with all of that luscious, scrumptious BLUE! Especially that last photo – all blue and textured and shiny! I love you, dear Kathryn, for this lovely gift! ♥
Well, then, you must know that I love you for *inspiring* it!!! That particular boat cleat was on a pier just *full* of great rusted stuff that used to be painted brilliant blues, so the offset of those complementary colors was mind-blowing, and all the more so because the sun was screamingly sharp and the sky blazing blue and the water reflecting it like cobalt glass–a perfect storm of blue-enhancement. Lucky me! I’m so pleased that you share my unnatural adoration for such things! 😀 Muah! Muah!!
Can I day what The Book Chick said because she just captured my thoughts! I wish I had an inkling of your talents 🙂
My dear! You know that I think you are enormously talented, too, so we are clearly in a mutual admiration society (and I sure do like the membership greatly!! 😉 ). Thank you, dear Belle.
I definitely think you are in the cosmos! I’m just mulling about in the trees! I wish you the best! Have a great day 🙂
I love blue, your blue photographs and lovely turquoise poem… Is that last photo a piece of metal on a dock? And how ever did you notice that it was blue?? So glisteningly blue.. I love that one!
Aha! You will notice that Cyndi commented on the dock cleat as well (and I told where I found it), and that ‘Nessa (BLUEsander) commented first about turquoise too. Apparently all us people of good taste do stick together!! By the way, I’m wearing my fabulous turquoise earrings today as this evening requires moderately presentable dress: R is guest clinician at an area high school tonight and I am going along so we can have a bit of evening time together, at least on the longish drive. 🙂 Wearing turquoise always seems to improve my mood. Maybe there’s a follow-up post a-coming? 🙂
xo
Hmmm, dressing up, Valentine’s Eve and turquoise, I believe you will have a follow-up post on it’s way tomorrow, er, today…
you have just injected some blue warmth on a very grey day here. Thank you, I needed it 🙂
Funny, it’s cold and grey here today too–but I’ll bet our “cold” is a whole lot higher temperature than yours at the moment (about 8 degrees C). No blue in our skies today either! But I just had a wonderful group bird visitation, so that brightened things momentarily. Including one streak of brilliant red, though the male cardinals here are tremendous scaredy-cats and bolt at the flick of an eyelash and scare off all of the other birds in the process. 🙂
I’ve seen photos of cardinals and they are joyous in their colouring. right now all I tend to see are the seagulls.
I just realized what I’ve missed about this snowless winter: the bright blue of the sky over a pristine white blanket at the end of a storm…
Oh, that is a pristine spectacle indeed! We were told last night there was the slightest chance of a dusting here, but it stayed at freezing so all we got was some very cold water. Sigh. The brown of the dead grass just doesn’t do the same magic to the sky as a swath of sparkling white, does it!!
You got the blue! Described it perfectly.
Fortunately, this sort of blue is ever so much cheerier than the blues ever were!
Although not my favorite color — I’m more of a green kinda guy, myself — I do admit blues can be breathtaking, even startling. I remember marveling upon getting my first glimpse of the Aegean and being awestruck by Pope John Paul II, who had the absolute bluest of eyes I’ve ever seen. They were, quite literally, gasp-worthy and truly unforgettable.
Intensely blue eyes are truly mesmerizing–though I’d say the same about deeply brown or black-looking or golden or, especially, brilliant green eyes. I never thought about the pope’s, but you *know* I’ll have to look up pictures now!!
And yes, I adore green. It would be quite unseemly for a girl born and bred in the Evergreen state if I didn’t, maybe. But oh!–brilliant sun coming through a forest roof or a wet bank of first-growth spring moss, a perfectly cut emerald, a Granny Smith apple at its peak, my *wedding dress* . . . 🙂
One day I’ll blog about when Zia and I “met” him, for lack of a better word, at the end of one of his public masses. He was quite frail, hunched over, looking away as we approached. When we came before him, he turned and first we were struck with how pale his skin was, almost matching his cassock. His blue eyes, though, were piercing, made even more so against that backdrop. I’ve never seen anything like them and don’t expect to see something similar again.
In the right hands (and eyes), blue manages to be such a warm and soulful hue. I love what your hands do with ALL the colors Kathryn, but an ode to blue seems somehow so fitting from you right now. I especially love that final image, just lovely Kathryn!
Thank you, darling–you can see from comments above that you are in good company with your reaction to that shot! As I said, I am just a color fiend. While I think black-and-white incredibly powerful and work in it far more in drawing than in color, in all other areas I am magnetically drawn (no pun intended) to color and its powers. 🙂
xoxo!
Blue-tiful!
You just blue my mind! 🙂
Very nice!
Thank you, Raymund! Blue is the one color that I don’t associate with food very much (blueberries being the main exception and one of the very few foods I don’t like), so in some ways I’m discovering that I love blue or blue-decorated serving dishes for the very reason that since it’s so absent in foods it complements and ‘frames’ them very beautifully. 🙂
The photos are beautiful, Kathryn. That turquoise and rust in the bottom picture is especially lovely.
I’m glad you like–the last is my favorite of the bunch too. 🙂
This reminded me of a poetry site I looked at a while back. The editor stated that any submitted poem with the word “azure” in it would be automatically rejected – how’s that for a narrow minded attitude? I may one day write a poem titled “azure” containing as many as possible “azures” and other bluey and purpley words and submit it to his site.
The only thing better than purple prose is azure verse!! Have at it, Dennis!!! 😀
Primary blue stands alone, no recipes for it, just pure blue. Nice poem, ki …
Oh, joy, the true hue of blue!! Glad you enjoyed. 🙂
Yes, there is something alchemic in blue…just look at the sky or a body of water like a lake or ocean…ever-changing and transforming…and taking other colors into itself so often to become something as breathtaking as gold!
Love this piece, as any painter of words and images would. Love the seeming contradiction in the title!
Yes, an artiste of both word and visual image like you can appreciate as intensely as anyone the miracles inherent in color!