Poetry |

“What’s Your Favorite Color”

What’s Your Favorite Color?

 

— I asked, icebreaker, and someone said “orange, now,”

and I agreed, somewhat, having come around to it also.

My favorite rose is orange. Well, orange and pink.

Lady of the Mist and she really is so pretty.

This book I’m reading is orange, too. Library binding.

A Marianne Moore Reader. She quotes Auden:

“… an anchor makes you secure but holds you back.”

I feel that.

Had been wanting not an anchor, per se, but …

Anyway, I’m mostly not held back;

I skim when I feel like it. Maybe that’s a little orange?

Whoever owned this book before left an index,

handwritten, all caps, inside the back cover.

For TENACITY, turn to page 181. For HAPPINESS, 183.

SUFFERING of course comes earlier. Page 179.

“Creative secrets, are they secrets?”

That’s Moore, 181. Good question.

But I don’t always stick around for answers.

The ink looks so good on this paper. Those were the days,

in terms of ink and paper, anyway.

I try not to say things that are just bullshit, I texted my sister.

And then she sent the big smile emoji

and I sent the modest face one,

and Moore does recommend humility,

along with concentration and gusto. Those are her big three.

Can’t recall the last time I heard anyone talk about gusto!

Gusto might be orange.

Worth a try, I suppose. Give it a go,

etc. And the orange book reassures me, somehow.

I’m on the right track. Orange is friendly like that.

Keep going, sweetheart.

First day of summer too.

Contributor
Mary Ann Samyn

Mary Ann Samyn’s seven collections of poetry include Air, Light, Dust, Shadow, Distance (2018) and the forthcoming The Return from Calvary (2025), both from 42 Miles Press. She writes on Substack at Cake & Poetry (maryannsamyn.substack.com) and divides her time between Michigan and West Virginia, where she teaches in the MFA program at West Virginia University.

Posted in Poetry

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