Christmas is red,
with or without snow.
I am tone deaf but rosy carols come naturally.
Heart blooms musically as cheeks blush rouged.
Passed in ’98, mother’s memory crimson bright,
tinsel lover carefully silvered red bauble balls.
Red skirt paled beneath gauzy apron always smudged
snowy confectioner sugar streaks and gravy tracks.
Life’s red blood stopped as father’s bubble lights died.
Mulled wine evokes spiced rubicund scent.
Red hot ire most of the time creamsicles to softer pink.
Passion flames blend to ever-companion,
berry bright books and lover in my bed.
Down comforter snuggled save cold red nose,
which brings me back to Rudolph.
Christmas is red.
Today Grace hosts dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. She is teaching us about synesthesia, a “neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sense leads to automatic, involuntary experiences of a second one.” Today, we are focusing on Grapheme Color Synesthesia, the most widely studied and common type of synesthesia.
For today’s prompt, we are to write about color from the perspective of a synesthete. Pick one color or several colors and create our own dictionary of color. What I chose to do was write in a stream-of-consciousness format, reacting to the color red. Photo is Christmas tree of my childhood. My mother loved tinsel.
lillian the home poet 
I too associate red with Christmas, with or without snow Lillian. Love that creamsicles to softer pink, and berry bright books and lover in my bed. Good memories to look forward to!
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So glad you enjoyed, Grace. As usual, I am late to the reading and commenting….but better late than never! 🙂
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Oh yes, Christmas is red, Lill! I love how you included all the different shades, I can smell that ‘spiced rubicund scent’ of mulled wine – delicious. These lines made me smile:
‘berry bright books and lover in my bed.
Down comforter snuggled save cold red nose,
which brings me back to Rudolph.’
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I enjoyed this prompt….and red was the first color that came to mind! 🙂
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Christmas is red; I love how you weaved it with memories of both sadness and joy… Christmas is a season to enjoy.
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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday — a time to be thankful and not involved at all with material gifts. But Christmas is my favorite season and so wrapped up in familial memories and traditional decorations. I have ornaments from both my mother’s and father’s Christmas trees when they were children! Christmas is red and always joyful.
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Christmas is always, ALWAYS red! No doubt about that, and your poem is so profound, beautifully composed with such visceral mood and tone. Excellence. ❤
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Thank you, Lucy! 🙂
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Christmas is definitely red, and you give us so many lovely versions to choose from! I love the way you bring it back full circle. I’m always reminded of the cycling of the year at Christmas time.
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Oh yes….cycling back in the last month of every year to Christmas….all the memories it evokes as I decorate our home….many of the decorations from when I was a child.
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Golly you mastered this prompt Lilian – a great read not least “rosy carols come naturally.”
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Thank you, Laura. Glad you enjoyed!
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Christmas is red — we will need some colour this year. Well done
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Yes indeed. My husband and I are literally hermits what with this horrible Covid disease. But we are healthy and very glad we married our best friends. I am very much looking forward to putting up our decorations this year! 🙂 A bit of sparkly and warmth from candles and tiny lights.
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That is such a satisfying ending, after the journey through reds to get back to where we started.
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Glad you enjoyed, Jane!
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🙂
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Christmas is most certainly red, and you somehow managed to bring out the jollity of all even though you touch on grief and bereavement. This is the hardest part of Christmas for me: the people who are no longer there to celebrate it with.
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Yes….I agree. I have two very fragile ornaments that go near the top of our tree each year. One is a pink glass etched bell that was on my mother’s tree when she was a little girl; another is a very delicate airplane with one wing partially broken that was given to my father when he was five. I always smile when I hang them…..and I carry on my mother’s tradition of putting tinsel on our tree and hanging each strand separately.
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That’s beautiful! I used to have some decorations from when I was young but now I only have some from the kids’ baby years.
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We both chose red, and created a list poem, and I love how many similarities our poems share. I like yours better, of course.
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So glad you like mine, Glenn. I am VERY late to the reading as usual (except when it’s my prompt) and I will be getting over to yours very soon. You’ve whet my appetite for it now! 🙂
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Cyclic wonderful, Lillian. Awesome work.
I did red, too.
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Thank you, Ron. Red is a popular color I think! 🙂
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Love me some Christmas Lillian, and red is so joyful — excellent piece! 🙂
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Thank you, Rob. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday as it’s a time to be thankful and is not involved in any way with material gifts. But Christmas is my favorite season when I decorate out house and many of the decorations are from when I was a little girl….George also makes Swedish glogg and we carry on that tradition as well. 🙂
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What a merry color red can be, and yoou show us just how 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed, Dora!
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You have my heart with this poem, Lillian! Yes, “Christmas is red, with or without snow.” Gorgeously rendered 💝
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Thank you, Sanaa. Here in the US where we celebrate Thanksgiving, that is my favorite holiday as it is indeed a time to be thankful and does not involve any material gifts. But Christmas is my favorite season and I take such joy in decorating our home…many of the decorations from my childhood that remind me of my mother, father, and brother….all who are no longer with us.
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“Down comforter snuggled save cold red nose, which brings me back to Rudolph.” Those lines had me smiling big! I am ready for Christmas now. This was a gorgeous stream-of-thought escapade!
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So glad you enjoyed, Tricia!
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So many shades of red, so many memories evoked by the red holiday. Really cool.
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So glad you enjoyed!
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Christmas is red come to think of it. I didn’t realize how much I ‘see’ it that way.
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Red and Green have always been my favorite colors….and then when I started exploring this prompt, I realized why! They are the two colors associated with Christmas and it truly is my favorite season of the year. I love decorating our home and many of the decorations are from my childhood days…reminding me of my mother, father and brother, all who have passed away. But, the colors and the fairy white lights and candles…all make those memories joyful rather than sad.
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For all those reason, yes.
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Lovely, Lillian. I really liked how you mixed memories into the color and holiday season, along with the scent of mulled wine and the warm comforter.
And you are right, red is the color of this season.
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Glad you enjoyed!
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I like the repeated circle of the Christmas seasons joined by a ribbon of red. (K)
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….a ribbon of red…………ah yes! Glad you enjoyed.
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Perfect close with Rudolph’s red nose corresponding to Christmas red!
Hank
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Glad you enjoyed, Hank. I am a septuagenarian so you know how very long ago it was that I was in high school. I took three years of French in high school. A good many years ago we visited Paris and I delighted in asking someone on the street “where is the library” and saying to my husband while in a restaurant, “pleas pass the butter” — all in French! The only other thing I remember in French, is how to sing the first few lines of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer! 🙂
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Great content 🙂 Thank you
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So glad you enjoyed!
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