This poem turned out to be uncharacteristically long; it is not for the faint-hearted.

Painting the World in Wonder
By John Herlihy

I see the world at first in black and white,
All the colors of the rainbow out of sight.
Mother Nature betrays a state of undress,
Naked to the eye, now under plain duress.
At first, I thought to myself how can this be,
A strange and ominous wonder for all to see.
I began to realize that I was living in a dream,
A chance to create the world with light beam.
A paint palate before me, my hand with brush,
A lump in my throat, I do remember that much.

The colors of the rainbow do number but seven,
Uniquely arranged upon God’s palate in heaven.
Each passion of color has a hue, pure and distinct;
Rainbow glow offers to the world this unity linked.
The glorious colors in the rainbow blend and blush;
The very sight of them gives me a feeling of rush.
Red next to orange merge into yellow then green;
Blue defers to indigo and then violet, as in a dream.
The world of color drains down into my eager hands;
Streams of wonder and light offered in livid bands.

Steady now, keep calm, to take in hand the brush,
Our black and white world silent, listen to the hush.
Who has drained the world of its color, its mystery?
Who has ravaged our world to create this false history?
About to clothe Mother Nature in colors of the rainbow,
An entire world to cast in a sublime, mysterious glow.
I sit before the world’s easel with feelings of wonder;
For one brief second, I hear peals of distant thunder.
As we take hold the brush, God watches from on high;
Not a sound could be heard anywhere, not even a sigh.

I break the awesome silence with the sound of my breath;
This colorless world seems an ominous premonition of death.
We know of blackness darkened with the tinge of night’s trust;
We know of whiteness lightened with light of the sun’s thrust.
My instrument a brush made of soft hairs from a horse’s mane;
The feathery bush will coral the wild world and make it tame.
Who am I to decide the color of the rose and the tint of the dove;
What do I know of bounteous plenitude and the mercy of love.
Each color has purity of purpose with which none can compare;
I dip my brush into crimson’s red, thinking to myself: Do I dare?

And dare I do as I make my first selection, the awesome, fiery red,
Whose livid flames leap into my imagination as I lay in my bed.
I fling splashes of red everywhere, including the heart of the sun,
The tomato, the apple, the robin’s red breast comparable to none.
The life blood flows through our veins, turgid and in living color;
As we bleed, the horrific red flows our fearful breath to smother.
A blood-red sun descends from on high in a display of fiery blaze;
The blood-red moon ascends in Indian summer to steal the haze.
As primary color with the dominant wavelength in the spectrum,
Red a mix of sacrifice, danger, and courage to create a rich vellum.

Orange makes its appearance within the spectrum of pure delight,
An exotic blended mixture of red and yellow, with profound insight.
Of course, the color’s name originates with the blessed fruit, orange;
The blood-red orange offers rare delight when we just want to splurge.
Forget not carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, or Halloween pumpkins,
Whose faces illuminated by candles do resemble country bumpkins.
Autumn couldn’t call itself by name without livid orange in its view,
The browns, reds, and yellows but second fiddle to what orange knew.
Crack the shell to reveal the whites of egg surrounded by orange yoke,
The poppy flower, the dahlia and the orange rose all orange evoke.

Next in the rainbow spectrum appears the beloved color of yellow,
Lying there snugly between orange and green, a discreet bedfellow.
With my fine horse-hair brush, let me paint the face of the daffodil;
When done, let me find in the garden the neglected, forlorn jonquil.
At closer inspection, the garden infested with buzzing yellow-jackets,
Going about their business of gathering honey, and making a racket.
I will save limes for the color green; but what about the sour lemons,
Next of kin to the divine fruit of the gods and known as persimmons.
Finally, let us not forget the ancient association of yellow with gold,
Egyptian tomb paintings used yellow to display female skin as bold.

I now make myself ready to send forth truly grand swarths of green;
Although due to its many shades, green is not what it may seem.
Green meadows, green savannahs, green grasslands, green fields;
The lush verdure of green finds its true triumph in Asian paddy fields.
I stand back from the world’s easel to send forth green into the wind;
I have all I can do not all the other colors in the rainbow to rescind.
Between plants and bushes, stately trees and their abundant leaves;
The color green seems to pore forth from Mother Nature’s sleeves.
Green apples, green string beans, green lady’s fingers, green pears;
The cornucopia of green vegetables will never surrender its wears.

We have finally arrived at the most glorious color of them all, blue,
Heavenly blue, oceanic blue, cobalt, navy, azure where the bird flew.
Within the folds of Virgin Mary and depicted in the robes of angels,
Sapphire blue known through the ages to adorn bejeweled bangles.
Semi-precious lapis lazuli as valued rock up to its appointed task,
Used as a color pigment in the eyebrows of Tutankhamun’s mask.
Whether in the blue-white of porcelain or in the blue-light of eyes,
The color blue has come to symbolize a hope that none despise.
In addition, blue traditionally symbolic of intelligence, knowledge,
True blue came to be known through history as a sacred pledge.

Indigo also takes its place in the color spectrum and rainbow,
Separating cobalt blue and violet with its own signature bow.
From 4,000 years ago as a plant known as nila, or dark blue,
Indigo has taken up residence, one of the colors we all knew.
Marco Polo mentions the vivid color indigo as dye noteworthy,
To be used by seductive temptresses to ward off any scurvy.
Electric indigo represents the sixth chakra, or the third eye,
Related to intuition and holy gnosis, revealed by the Divine I.
All the colors of the light spectrum represent a unique hue,
To paint the world again in color, as wondrous as God drew.

Before we lose the light of day, let us make mention of violet;
The last color of the spectrum and rainbow and thus inviolate.
Not surprisingly, the color’s name taken from the violet flower;
One of the most exotic and unique in color in the divine bower.
Down thru history, violet is associated with royalty and majesty;
The emperors of Rome wore purple togas to enhance dignity.
The Virgin Mary wore purple robes as did the medieval bishops;
Lurid violet flags were known to adorn the mast of pirate ships.
Finally, let us not neglect to mention the exotic scent of lavender;
Used as balm, salve, and perfume with its subtle hint of camphor.

Alas, the night begins to fall and all color begins to drain away;
Our beauteous rainbow has disappeared without the light of day.
As the day moves forward, it release special forces and powers;
We enjoy the colors of the rainbow with the passing of the hours.
With the coming of darkness, we live in a world of black and white;
Shadows lurk around every corner bringing with them fear of night.
It is not for nothing that the end of day is referred to as twilight;
As all the colors of the world simply drain away from our sight.
But fear not, all the glories of the rainbow can be created anew;
A blush of crimson, a gleam of gold, the mystery of sapphire blue.