Blind Rainbow {Aesthetics + Poems}

| Allison

Hello, dears!

***NOTE: I had to re-publish this a couple of times since WordPress wasn’t cooperating. Sorry if you’ve seen it more than once!***

Anyway. Here’s an interesting question: how would you describe your favorite color to a blind person? It’s HARD, isn’t it? I tried writing a description of my favorite color without the word “purple” in it, and had so much fun that I wrote a bunch more!

Today I’m going to try to describe ten different colors in no particular order using little poems or sketches in such a way that you can figure out which color I’m referring to without me actually naming it. (Did that make any sense?) I’ll follow each sketch with a photo in case you need a hint, so scroll slow if you don’t want spoilers. XD Have fun!

you are standing in the long shadow of a mighty maple tree as the sun sinks. the air is cool and moist with the promise of dew, but it carries a last, golden warmth in its hands. the rich, faded mountains stand calm and strong around you and you are alone, but home is just over the hill. the mountain waves lick up the sun as you stand in the velvet-soft silence, knee-deep in majestic comfort, heavy with the reassuring weight of being loved.

purple 2

the sheets are fragrant with cleanliness, stark and smooth on the unwrinkled bed. the feeling is almost impossible to grasp – when you stare at it, it looks back, blank-faced, like a smooth, slippery nut you can’t grip and can’t crack. it goes on forever, unbroken – or maybe the end is just ahead. regardless, your mind is clean like winter air wiped clear of dust by falling snow.

white 2

there it is again – the perfect square of sunlight streaming through the window and covering the floor like a welcome mat. you step into the smile on the ground, warmed through like a perfectly toasted marshmallow, a laugh bubbling up inside. something wonderful must come of this melt-in-your-mouth joy!

yellow

the heavy cloth feels smooth and creamy against your skin. your toes sink deep into the carpet and you realize you never really knew til now that the world is full of incalculable riches, if you could only reach them. your heart pounds at the pulse of life beating just beyond your fingertips, and you feel a wild desire to chase it to the ends of the earth, to hold it by the handfuls and let it stream from your hair. you catch a breath and make a promise.

red

shuffling along a wide road with no one there, you feel the worn-out tiredness of this old, old world that longs to be new, and whisper a sigh. the sky is as heavy as your heart. the rain seeps into the cracks in your skin the way parched ground drinks up a hose’s offering. sometimes the rain feels good, but sometimes a storm comes and leaves the world desolate as if a tornado went through.

gray 2

panic! there’s nothing here to hang on to, nowhere to set your feet. your hands are so far away – maybe they’re floating off into the night. your eyes open wider but all they take in is a blind heat that suffocates like a sack over the head. there is nothing to control; you are sinking forever.

black

a restless fire burns the soft bits of clouds from the sky, flames licking farther and farther until the mountain waves wash them out. glaring, sullen, the flame points to the spark, standing stiffly by the road and saying loudly that the work is never done, so stand back now.

orange 1

eternally high, eternally deep, eternally wide, reflecting your heart like seamless glass. in the heat of your anger the breeze comes and you are washed over with peace so overflowing that it drips from your fingers and fills up your eyes. the clouds are gone today and who knows, maybe tomorrow too.

blue

your laughter, your smiles, your gestures clearly show – no one can knock you down – you’ll pop up again with an exasperating persistence. you need a little cream, a little breeze, and you would be soft as a silken petal that curves through the air to rest on your cheeks like quiet blush.

Pink

your wide eyes stare up at mine in amazement. i know the way you feel – you throw a crumb into the earth and try to believe it will come up reborn. and it does – life from a speck, filled with the Creator’s breath. the world is new again and so are you, my darling; so are you.

green

Ahh, that was so much fun! I hope you enjoyed reading the post and trying to guess the colors. I want to know…

Could you guess the colors from my descriptions? Which poem or photo was your favorite? How would you describe YOUR favorite color to a blind person?

***Allison***

P. S. Photos taken with a variety of cameras and lenses, since some of these photos are from waaaay back. But I edited them all with picmonkey.com, per the usual.

72 thoughts on “Blind Rainbow {Aesthetics + Poems}”

  7. OH.MY.GOODNESS. These are so goooood! I used to think about that question a lot when I was younger, I could never think of an answer haha. But these poems! You’re so creative! Xx

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  14. Oh my goodness, (like so many of the other comments) I’ve never really thought much about this, but it’s such a neat idea! I should try it sometime! And by the way, you did a wonderful job of explaining purple. 🙂 💜

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    1. Thank you for the sweet comment, Hannah! ❤ YES, you totally should! I actually thought of you when I was posting it since I know how much you like aesthetics. 😛 And thanks! It's my favorite color, so I wanted it to be good. 😉

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  15. That was so much fun and a super creative idea! I got all of them, except the one for gray, because the road I pictured was brown dusty one for some reason. 😆 My favorite is the one for yellow.

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  16. Brilliant idea!! Really liked it and how you tried your hard describing all the colours in a way that makes it also fun to read not only fun to guess … 🙈💖

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  19. The pictures are so pretty and I like that they are all from nature. I liked the green and red pictures best.

    I have thought often about how to describe colors to people who have been blind their whole life or since they were to young to remember. You can do it, but the fact is they would never really know what color looks like because you can’t comprehend something you have never seen. Which is something else I think about: how do they imagine other things beside color, like a square. It might be easier because you could feel things, like, say, a block of wood. But still, it’s strange to think that they can’t really understand it, and that no matter how big of an imagination you have you can only imagine something based off what you have seen.
    It is sad that some blind people aren’t able to know what color is or that a deaf person can never understand music.

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    1. Thank you so so much, Mandalynn! Nature is my favorite thing to photograph. 🙂
      I KNOW, right?? That’s so interesting – thanks for sharing your thoughts! It’s really strange to think about. I know… which do you think is more sad, no color or no music?

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      1. You are welcome!
        I guess I would say it is sadder not to hear music. I used to not really like music, I don’t know why, I just didn’t, but I have really grown in liking it over the past few years; especially classical music. I like that music sounds like it talks. It sounds happy or sad, triumphant, adventurous, mysterious. Some music reminds me of a galloping horse.
        It was interesting learning about how music is used in movies to evoke certain emotions and a bit spooky to think that they can use the right music to make you feel what they want you to.
        And continuing with the thoughts about blind people: I also like to think about dreams, like, how do blind people dream? I did some research on it and it was very interesting. it talked about how if you went blind before the age of five or so you wouldn’t see in your dreams; people who go blind later will see, but as the years pass and your memory forgets what the things actually look like the images in your dreams slip away. Blind people feel, smell, and taste in their dreams, which is understandable since when one sense is gone the others become more acute to make up for it.
        I watched something about this girl who is a composer and in her dreams she composes sometimes, which is pretty crazy, and I thought, “I never hear music in my dreams. Why not?” But she is always working with music and plays her instruments hours each day and since you dream about what you think it makes sense she would hear music. I have before watched a British show and the people from it were in my dream one night and I could hear their English accent.

        So anyway, these are some of the things I think about among a great many.
        (My thoughts kind of ran away with me. XD)

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        1. Whoa, that was fascinating! Blindness would be like living in a whole different world. Same here – I didn’t used to care much for music, but now I love it! Yessss, I live how music can evoke emotion too, especially in movies. That paragraph about dreaming was really interesting – thanks for sharing, dear! 😃

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  22. Allison, this is what you should do next. Make postcards or bookmarks out of these elements. Have your poems and pictures together and design if you haven’t already. You can always have a relevant poem that goes well with a picture.

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  25. This was such a neat idea, and cleverly executed, as well! I didn’t do so well guessing the colors, but never mind that.
    Also, I just love that pink photo of the roses. It’s so aesthetic, and reminds me of a picture you might find on a stock photo website. 🙂

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    1. Thank so much! Heh heh, well for some of them it was pretty vague… 😉
      Aww, that means a lot! I did some editing to that one, but I really like how it turned out as well. 🙂

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  27. Wow! Loved this!🤗 After reading the first two or three descriptions I could correctly guess what color you were describing before seeing the picture, quite fun!

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  29. Allison, this is SO GOOD! I’m so happy whenever I get to read some of your amazing writing. 😀 Purple and gray were probably my favorites, but I loved them all. ❤ Also, THOSE PHOTOS! This whole post was just so beautiful. :')

    -Clara ❤

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