Take Light and Colour, and Write Me the World
If you’re looking for books to read during quarantine, and you enjoyed my COLOUR poetry series, look no further. There are no two books that I have so ferociously read in one sitting as “The Secret Lives of Colour” by Kassia St. Clair, and “Six Facets of Light” by Ann Wroe.
In “The Secret Lives of Colour”, St. Clair details the history and our cultural understanding of 75 hues of colour (one of the most interesting things I discovered is that pink was for the longest time considered a boy’s colour due it being a faded “masculine” red!). In “Six Facets of Light” Ann Wroe is interested in what precedes our perception of any colour, and that is light. She writes, “If all the light by which we see is ancient […] having journeyed from the first crack of time, it surely carries with it all manner of memories, disturbances and ghosts.” Moreover, she contends that in creation myths, “Light and word emerged together” as creative principles, facets by which we see all else. She writes about six facets of the brilliance of light and the ways in which it illuminates and shapes our world.
There is a mindful aspect to the feeling of colour and light. That is likely why I so enjoyed reading these two books and why I am interested in the concept of colours having connotations, histories, textures, traits, and associations. If you haven’t already, you can read a compilation of my COLOUR series below:
Thought of the Day
Ann Wroe writes “If all the light by which we see is ancient […] having journeyed from the first crack of time, it surely carries with it all manner of memories, disturbances and ghosts.” In creation myths, Light and Word emerged as one as link to the creative principle by which we see all colour. The mindfulness of reflecting upon a single colour of a mug, for instance, is as significant as gazing upon a glorious sunset. It is, after all, the brilliance of light that shapes them all.
-Gabriela Milkova
Stay inspired.
