By Ellen Gwin

The key to writing about color without saying the color is to stimulate the five senses of your reader: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste — and the sixth sense: emotions.

While you don’t need to incorporate all five senses into your poem, it’s still a good idea to think about them when brainstorming.

Think about:

Sight: The images that come with the color you’ve chosen:

• Yellow:
  • Ducks, sun, lemons, honey
• Blue
  • Ocean, sky, eyes, veins
• Pink
  • Brain, flowers, sunset, cheeks
• Green
  • Leaves, emeralds, frogs, pears
• Red
  • Roses, strawberries, lips, racecars
• Orange
  • Sunset, pumpkins, salmon, marigolds

Taste & Smell: The objects you imagine tasting & smelling with each color

• Yellow
  • Lemons, saffron, passion fruit
• Blue
  • Blueberry pie, blue cheese, bluraspberry lollipop
• Pink
  • Starburst, watermelon, bubblegum
• Green
  • Brussel sprouts, peppermint ice cream, honeydew melon
• Red
  • Cherry, spaghetti, blood orange
• Orange
  • Tangerine, kumquat, papaya

Touch: What do you imagine feeling or touching with each color?

• Yellow
  • Warm skin, hot seatbelts, sticky honey
• Blue
  • Salty water, clear breaths, cold showers
• Pink
  • Dainty lips, burning cheeks, dense gum
• Green
  • Slime, luscious grass, wet leaves
• Red
  • Hot blood, smooth fruits, soft flowers
• Orange
  • Burning hot, red hair, fuzzy peaches

Sound: What sounds remind you of the color?

• Yellow
  • Clapping crowds, giggles, charades
• Blue
  • Splashing waves, crying tears, rain drops
• Pink
  • Sloppy kisses, long goodbyes, smacking gum
• Green
  • Wind in the trees, birds chirping, lovers screams
• Red
  • Loud voices, moaning into the night, yelps of pain
• Orange
  • Laughter, crunchy foods, running feet

BONUS: Emotions that remind you of the color

• Yellow:
  • Energetic, sunny, joyous
• Blue
  • Deep, sad, tranquil
• Pink
  • Blushing, inspiring, warm
• Green
  • Vivacious, envious, ambitious
• Red
  • Passionate, angry, powerful
• Orange
  • Creative, zealous, fiery

I hope this finds everyone well and happy writing! –Elle Vue

by Ellen Gwin

Have you ever loved the idea and general gusto of a poem but felt it fell flat or seemed cliche? Here are some tips on how to add in some metaphors, symbolism, and philosophy into a poem to give it more life!

Brainstorm for a new idea to weave in

This could be Plato’s ideas about happiness, Circe’s symbolism of transformation, the comparison of a heart to a tasty apple, whatever you want!

The point here is to add an extra layer to your poem, making it more interesting for the reader.

• Read philosophy
  • Aristotle’s theories on friendships
  • Descartes’ ideas on soul & body
  • Nietzsche’s nihilism & thirst for life
• Pick a specific story within literature
  • Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: A story of friendships and betrayal
  • Athena’s representation of wisdom and wrath in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey
  • Beowulf sacrificing himself to slay a dragon & save his village
• Look to nature
  • The sun: airy light or scorching fire
  • Flowers: Blooming, rebirth, dainty, love, their origin stories
    • Example: Poppy flowers sprang from the blood of Adonis according to Ovid’s Venus and Adonis
  • Trees: Strong, old, unwavering, wisdom
  • Water: Purity, rebirth, flow of life
• Art
  • Fashion:
    • Gothic eyeliner, fishnet gloves, combat boots
    • Cottage dresses, wooden clogs, strawberry lips
    • Dusty books, wool sweaters, oxford shoes
  • Paintings:
    • Renaissance art: Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci
    • 19/20th century art such as Picasso, Monet, Salvador Dali
    • Modern art such as John Currin or Zeng Fanzhi
• Music
  • Classical music: Alberto Iglesias, Philip Glass, Dario Marianelli
  • 80s music: Joy Division, New Order, The Who
  • Other oldies (misc. decades): Don McLean, Billie Holiday, Van Morrison
  • Jazz: Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie
  • Current: Billie Eilish, Lonely Benson, The Strokes
• Example
  • I read the Odyssey and felt inspired by Sirens

What to do once you’ve picked a topic

• Write down every image, word, or idea that comes to mind when you think of the topic you’ve chosen
  • Do this step without any research so that you can make sure your poem isn’t “too smart” for your readers
  • Example: Sirens
    • Beautiful voices
    • Fishnets
    • Birds
    • Mermaids
    • Odysseus
    • Death and consumption
    • Deathly love
    • Rock ocean
• After writing what you know off the top of your head, research for facts
  • Only include the researched items if they can be easily understood or if there’s room to explain them
  • Example: Sirens
    • Demeter gave handmaids the body of birds to help her search for Persephone when Hades took her
    • Some people believe sirens die if a man hears them but does not come to them
    • Sometimes known as the Muses of the underworld because of their deathly beautiful voices

Weave in the new found metaphor, allusion, symbol, etc.

Only change places that seem natural to change, do not try to force the metaphor, symbol, allusion, etc. into places that it does not fit.

• Find verbs to replace with ones pertaining to your idea or metaphor
  • Example: Sirens
    • Replace kiss with consume
    • Replace calling or beckoning with luring
    • Replace walking/moving with sailing, swimming, or flying
• Find adjectives that can be replaced with adjectives pertaining to your idea or metaphor
  • Example: Sirens
    • Replace t-shirt with mesh shirt
    • Engulfing arms with oceanic abyss
• Change places where you tell into places where you show
  • Example: Sirens
    • Change “you would’ve done anything to make sure you were the only guy who got to touch me” to “you consumed me whole”
    • Change the idea of someone’s false words into the well known metaphor of “flimsy falsettos”

My original poem:

If I had the opportunity to kiss you again I would say, “No, I can’t. My love for you was a hollow scream and I do not have a hollow soul. I didn’t know any better back then, I didn’t understand that if you loved me back you would’ve done anything to make sure that you were the only guy who got to touch me. I didn’t want anyone else near you. I loved you with my heart on my sleeve and there will always be a place for you in my heart. But no, I can’t kiss you one last time, I’d spiral down into your arms. I’ve moved on and I know you have. I hope for the best for both of us

The finished product:

   If I had the opportunity to kiss you again I would say, “No, I can’t. My love for you was a hollow scream and I do not have a hollow soul. My mesh t-shirt was meant to show you my bleeding heart, not satiate the luring consumption you desired.  I didn’t know any better back then, I didn’t understand that if you loved me back you wouldn’t consume me whole in flimsy falsettos. But no, I can’t kiss you one last time, I’d spiral completely into your oceanic abyss again. I’ve opened the sail of my ship to take me with the wind, or at least I’m trying to.”

Siren Call by Elle Vue

I hope this finds everyone well and happy writing! –Elle Vue

by Ellen Gwin

Today I am going to explain the more mechanical side of how I write poetry. In later posts I will break down the process a bit more and explain more of the “why” of what I choose to do.

First and foremost it’s important to remember that everyone’s process is different and that’s completely okay! Do what works for you or try something new.

Step 1: Write down your thoughts all in one go:

• Do this step without censoring or judging yourself
• Write in your most natural voice, even if it doesn’t feel groomed
• Close your eyes and try to empathize with the poem you’re trying to write, place yourself inside of the space you want to create
• Here is what happens when I take this step:
  • I always imagined what the perfect guy was and who I wanted to date, but when I saw you, you were the complete opposite of what I’d ever constructed in my mind. I was flushed with curiosity and I couldn’t keep my gaze from drifting to you. It was as if you felt it too. I looked up from my journal when your eyes met mine, it was in that quick moment, a literal blink of an eye, that I realized I need you. I couldn’t keep myself from imagining my mouth exploring yours and my body being touched by yours. I felt like I had been stranded in a whirlwind of people who never really cared to get to know me at all, no matter how hard I tried with them. Then you, out of nowhere, gave me this knowing look..It was as if you were saying, “I know we don’t know anything about each other and I know you might get weirded out by how forward I am, but there’s this magnetic force pulling me to you…..and I wouldn’t be surprised that if we got to know each other, I could love you for the rest of my life.” Please do. Love me. Love me. Love me. For the rest of my life, because that’s all I need.

Step 2: Break the poem into stanzas

• Find places where you begin a new idea, want emphasize a point, or change the pace of the poem to create a stanza
• Doing this gives you a chance to refocus the poem & your thoughts with each line

Step 3: Remove lines that don’t fit in the poem

Now I realize this sounds obvious, but it’s very hard to do this to the writing you worked so hard on & have grown to love– here are some tips

• Remove ideas that seem strained
• Remove any sentences that you feel like are over-explaining
• Remove sentences that “tell” instead of “show”
• Remove lines that seem cheesy or melodramatic

Step 4: Keep the removed lines somewhere else

• I keep the lines I remove at the bottom of the word document I’m working on
  • You can also create a specific word document for lines removed from your poetry
• This way you can remove lines without losing ideas (or getting sad)
• For example here are some lines I saved while editing the poem above:
  • My body touching the warmth radiating from yours.
  • Unexplored are the lips surrounding our smiles might be, but our eyes have discovered each other
  • “I know we don’t know anything about each other and I know you might get weirded out by how forward I am, but there’s this magnetic force pulling me to you…I wouldn’t be surprised if we got to know each other, I could love for the rest of my life.” Please do. Love me, love me, love me. That’s all I need.

Step 5: Tweak parts where the idea holds water, but the structure may burst

• Change “to be” verbs to active verbs
  • “To be” verbs: Be, Been, being, is, was, were.
  • Example:
    • “To be” verb: I was eating bad soup.
    • Active verb: I ate bad soup.
• Add in descriptive adjectives and remove ones that just add “fluff”
  • Example:
    • Original: “I always imagined what the perfect guy was and who I wanted to date.”
    • Revised: “I always imagined who my life partner would be, perhaps someone tall and humble or short and witty.”
• Make sure the piece flows rhythmically
• Play around with point of view
  • i.e. first person, second person, third person, third person omniscient, etc.

Step 6: Voila!

Maybe at this stage you finished your poem or maybe you need to sit on it for a week or two before repeating the steps. Either way, I hope this helped and I look forward to explaining the “why” behind using some of these tips!

Finished poem: Slightly Delusional but Mostly Desperate by Elle Vue

  I always imagined who my life partner would be, perhaps someone tall and humble or short and witty. When I saw you, you existed as the complete opposite of what I’d ever constructed in my mind: neither tall nor short, humble nor witty but something far more complex and indefinite.

    I was flushed with curiosity and couldn’t keep my impetuous gaze kept drifting to you and maybe you felt it too. I looked up from my journal, your eyes found mine, in that literal bat of an eye, I realized I needed you. 

   I couldn’t keep myself from imagining my blooming lips exploring yours and our bodies so close between silk sheets we create our own kind of global warming. I felt like I had been stranded in a whirlwind of people who never really cared  to look into my eyes no matter how hard I tried to catch their eye. 

    Then you, out of nowhere, gave me this deliberate smile while boring into the abyss of pupils and I just wanted to scream, “The lips around our rosy smiles may be unexplored, but our eyes have already observed what our hearts have yet to admit. Please sit and chat a while and let those lips loosen like a sail to the wind. I want to unearth a new anthropological discovery in the curve of your tempting hips.”