The Red-Letter Poems Project was created in grateful partnership with many of our town’s cultural resources: the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, the Arlington Center for the Arts, the Robbins Library, the Arlington International Film Festival, and Arlington Community Education.
We will send out a poem from a new poet every week. If you enjoy them, we encourage you to forward them to friends – in Arlington and beyond – or to post them on your social media platforms. If you would like to receive these poems directly – or to receive notices about future poetry events – send an email to: steven.arlingtonlaureate@gmail.com.
That Blue
One day after the eternal winter,
the scilla gush out of the ground
in a tide that laps
at the sidewalk. Cold wind
rakes them into ripples
so they make a lake on the lawn.
This blue shimmering with violet
makes the sky seem pale.
You can find it across centuries
in beads, ribbons, velvet,
concocted on the palettes
of Gauguin and Van Gogh,
favored by the Fauves,
those wild beasts of art.
A blue that makes you pause
as if listening for music;
maybe you could
wish on it
for something
you’d forgotten
you wanted.
-- Cathie Desjardins
from: Buddha in the Garden
(Tasora Books)