sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Yellow Face

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then be inspired to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

This week my featured form is colour poems.

In the doctor’s story, we have of course a yellow mask. And there is also the apparent importance attached to the colour of one’s skin, which happily turns out not to be important at all—at least for one family.

One of the moderators for our little community (a Miss Frankles I believe) informs me that she was first introduced to the form at a place called “deviantART”. I must admit the name rather shocked me—I mean, whatever happened to correct capitalisation and punctuation? She further tells me that, after some Googling (Dutch dancing..? I am not certain why this would help), she cannot be sure who invented the form and where exactly it originated.

However, here are the rules as given by SilverInkblot:

Line 1 - Your colour
Lines 2, 3, 4 - things your colour looks like
Lines 5, 6, 7 - things your colour sounds like
Lines 8, 9, 10 - things your colour tastes like
Lines 11, 12, 13 - things your colour feels like
Line 14 - sum it all up.

Here is my example poem:

Purple
is the colour of spring violets,
blackberry jam
and the questionable stain on my new rug.
There was a squelch as I trod on it
and some dark language from me.
And I believe I heard masculine footsteps running away.
It could be blackberry jam.
Or maybe wine.
I’m certainly not tasting it to find out.
I made the error of touching it
and now a rash is emerging.
Dear God. I think my fingers are going numb…
D____ you, Mr. Holmes! But you cannot hide from me forever!

As always, this is simply something to consider for the future. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, diamante, doggerel, epigram, epulaeryu, fable, haiku, limerick, palindrome poetry, riddle, sedoka, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triolet, tyburn, villanelle

Please leave all your poems inspired by The Yellow Face in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson