American Blue
Looking back on my recent travels to California, Nevada and Arizona, where I had the time of my life, I just kind of wrote this as the nostalgia hit me hard. I don't know if you can call this a poem, but it's just a way for my post-travel blues to tumble freely into words which might be able to bottle up this feeling captured in the title....
American
Blue
The colour on my mind is American Blue.
Blue. Like the faded denim jeans of men chasing freedom on
the open road,
Blue. Like the hue of pine trees looming in the distance under the
haze of California sun.
They say you could paint the essence of California with just
3 colours;
Infinite shades of red, green and blue
In strokes both sheer and soft, like the ambiguity of its soul.
Red. Like the way the setting sun paints the pastel sky at
the end of each day
as rosy tendrils curl around the sparse, wispy clouds.
Green. Like the peaks of Yosemite, explored by hikers who seek
a greater purpose
and understanding, as they climb with ancient waterfalls and rainbows
that dance in the
sparkling mists between fallen rocks where the water plummets against a crystal surface
from above.
Blue. Like the Venetian-turquoise ocean, that twinkles as I
watch swirling peaks swell
and surface as they catch the sun like sparks, from
the end of the Santa Monica Pier
beneath the infinite sky.
Moments like these, as bitter sweet as the lingering taste of blueberries that tumbled
like rolling dice from the stack of syrup pancakes in that early morning air.
Red. Like the euphoric passion that burns in your heart when you
fall in love again and again
on the Venice Beach board walk, as your thundering heart falls in rhythm to the beat of a drum
sounding from across the golden
sand.
Green. Like the Joshua trees of Nevada as you follow the interstate into Vegas at sunset,
Until the dazzling lights of Vegas rise from the rusted desert
over the blue concrete road,
like a sparkling empire, shrouded in its sin, and disguised by the inescapable dreams of
humanity’s inevitable greed.
But the colour on my mind is American Blue.
Blue. Like the depths of the ocean, where your heart sinks as
the myth of a Hollywood dream
stares you coldly in the eye in the form of empty pockets, grimy streets and a million innocent
strangers trapped in pursuing the same intangible dream.
But venture back in time across the state border to Arizona,
along Route 66.
Watch the setting sun pour itself across the rocks of the magnificent
Grand Canyon,
And you will discover shades of red you never knew existed,
which have resided
in those rocks for more than a hundred lifetimes before the world’s
conscious wake,
and will never cease to glow in lifetimes ahead of the short
breath of humanity’s existence
in the grand scale of the universe's numbered days. Let the anvils of our minuscule lives fall
from your shoulders, and find yourself in Nature's timeline as piece of beauty in a life greater than we know.
My life has always demanded adventure,
Miles away from the green pastures of England's landscapes,
As my heart yearns with wanderlust
Sparked from visions created in artistic forms.
And so I plunged, heart and soul, into these artistic forms
Which flowered into a dream that I found the courage to pursue.
But the colour on my mind is American Blue.
Blue. As I sit now, and watch my recent adventure slip through my fingers into the past
And the mundane routine of an ordinary life seeps back in through the window with a dewy chill,
and I think to myself about every way in which I grew, whilst my home stayed the same.
The more miles I ventured, the more walls I broke through,
Whilst still seeking comfort in the things that felt familiar.
Remembering my friends and family, miles away, as my faces to call home.
It is because of them that I am able to grow,
I have the freedom to roam,
Always remembering England as my place to call home.
So from this day on, I promise to see the world and all of its colours,
To discover my identity that isn't determined by where I am
from, but where I belong.
And this dream of mine began in photographs from over the sea, in the land of the free.
And so, my life will always be this;
A pursuit of seamless moments that challenge the mysteries
and miracles born in my mind.
And this feeling? I can’t find words that describe how it
feels.
But I can tell you what it looks like....
.....American Blue.
Comments
Post a Comment