“Ode to Gray” by Dorianne Laux

~ jama

“I like the muted sounds, the shroud of grey, and the silence that comes with fog.” ~ Om Malik

“Whose Turn Is It” by Dempsey Essick.
ODE TO GRAY
by Dorianne Laux

Mourning dove. Goose. Catbird. Butcher bird. Heron.
A child’s plush stuffed rabbit. Buckets. Chains.

Silver. Slate. Steel. Thistle. Tin.
Old man. Old woman.
The new screen door.

A squadron of Mirage F-1’s dogfighting
above ground fog. Sprites. Smoke.
“Snapshot gray” circa 1952.

Foxes. Rats. Nails. Wolves. River stones. Whales.
Brains. Newspapers. The backs of dead hands.

The sky over the ocean just before the clouds
let down their rain.

Rain.

The seas just before the clouds
let down their nets of rain.

Angelfish. Hooks. Hummingbird nests.
Teak wood. Seal whiskers. Silos. Railroad ties.

Mushrooms. Dray horses. Sage. Clay. Driftwood.
Crayfish in a stainless steel bowl.

The eyes of a certain girl.

Grain.

~ from Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems (W.W. Norton & Co., 2020)
“Dust Motes Dancing in Sunbeams” by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1900).

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What’s the first thing you think of when the color gray is mentioned? Dull, drab, boring, noncommittal? Neither black nor white (yet both), gray hovers in-between, taking a neutral, indifferent stance.

“Old Couple” by Elena Roginsky.

We associate gray with aging and cloudy days. Having worked in many office settings, I’ve seen my share of gray cubicles and file cabinets, copy machines and shredders. Gray is institutional, business-like, a calling card for conformity.

In Europe and North America, only about 1% of those surveyed consider gray their favorite color.

And yet . . .

I like gray and appreciate its personality. Elegant, dignified, unobtrusive and restful, gray’s an understudy content to linger in the wings so others can shine (Rembrandt and El Greco often painted gray backgrounds to emphasize the golden light on subjects’ faces).

“A Young Scholar and His Tutor” by Rembrandt (1629-30).

As soft as a dove’s feather, as hard as steel, as tiny as a mouse or as big as a whale, gray takes on many guises. As we see in Laux’s poem, it’s a common color for animals, birds, and fish, who are draped in natural camouflage.

Consider the strength of battleships, the pride of military uniforms, the recorded history of black-and-white photographs. Mushrooms and metals, river stones and seal whiskers. Once we begin to take stock, gray’s been here all along — water, air, minerals, mist, ground — happy to thrive without the emotional drama.

Paul McCartney and school friends looking at a replica of the Crown Jewels at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (1952).

In a world of bright colors screaming for attention, there is much to be said for subtlety and quiet power.

Laux’s poem made me take another look at the grays around me: a favorite nubby sweater, pewter tankards, laptops, old soup spoons, Len’s three-piece wedding suit, the cover of my French dictionary, Babar the Elephant. And both our cars are gray.

Babar by Jean de Brunhoff.

Laux is a master of the list poem — how she revels in recording the world around her in quotidian detail! With each object, the gift of an image, a note in her lyrical sequence. The alliteration of “Silver. Slate. Steel. Thistle. Tin,” the order of the naming — single words like beads on a string, honed to perfection, then the variance of a phrase for maximum impact. “The backs of dead hands.”

“Cloudy Sky” by Maco L (2018).

There is more to gray than meets the eye, she seems to say. Gray matter matters. The all important gray area defines modern life, as we struggle day after day to find our footing.

And did you know we can perceive not just fifty shades of gray, but five hundred? 🙂

“Rue de Paris, temps de pluie” by Gustave Caillebotte (1877).

Best part: certain Englishmen can really rock a grey suit. 🙂

Your assignment if you choose to accept it:

  1. Pick a color.
  2. Make a list of specific things, natural or man-made, matching that color.
  3. Arrange your items (the tricky part), to make a point, tell a story, etc., for maximum effect.

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🥧 BOOK GIVEAWAY WINNER! 📕

Thanks to everyone for commenting last week. I drooled over all your favorites pies! Quite a few votes for strawberry rhubarb and lemon meringue. 😍 Anyway, we are pleased to announce that the lucky person who has won a brand new copy of PIE-RATS by Lisa Frenkel Riddiough and David Mottram is:

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🎺🎺 trumpet fanfare 🎺🎺

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🥁 🥁 drumroll please 🥁🥁

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🍒 🍓 DENISE KREBS! 🍎🍋

🎉 Hooray, hooray!! Congratulations, Denise!! 🎈

👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

We know you will love the book. Make sure to celebrate by treating yourself to four pies pies pies pies this weekend: apple, cherry, strawberry rhubarb and peach! It is your civic duty to do so. 😀

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Thanks again, everyone!

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Lovely and talented Buffy Silverman is hosting the Roundup this week. Slither like a snake over there to check out the full menu of poetic goodness being served up around the blogosphere. Enjoy your weekend and Happy May!!

*Copyright © 2024 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.

37 thoughts on ““Ode to Gray” by Dorianne Laux”

  1. In your analysis/ commentary, I love “single words like beads on a string, honed to perfection, then the variance of a phrase for maximum impact.” Before I even got to the end of your post, I was thinking about doing this activity with kids. I even thought I could give them different art supplies to create the different shades of their chosen colors to write from. I love how this poem turned my inner eye to grey. It’s a grey day here with thunderstorms. Now I will enjoy it more, carrying this poem with me.

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    1. Yes, it sounds like a great activity for kids! We’re going to have a gray, gloomy weekend over here. Not complaining at all. . . 🙂

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  2. I really enjoyed this post…the amount of research and thought you put into these (almost) daily beauties is truly inspiring. Thank you for giving us these gems.

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  3. Fab post Jama, personally I’m quite fond of neutral gray and have lectured and taught exercises on it for painting and in color theory. It holds the ability to calm what’s around it, it’s also not a simple color to decipher or create, patience helps. The poem is excellent along with the images, thanks for satisfying our palette’s! 🦈🦭🦏🫏📖🖊️📐🔎🩶🎶🔊

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    1. Love all those emojis, Michelle! Nice to hear about your teaching all about gray to your students. Yes, it does calm everything around it — doing the work without calling attention to itself.

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  4. Dear Jama, I like grey too (I always spell it with an “e” because it feels more grey to me!). When I think of grey I think of quiet and solitude…which I enjoy! Your post also reminds me of that marvelous collection HAILSTONES AND HALIBUT BONES. Oh, and I ADORE Dorianne Laux! xo

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    1. I like to spell grey with an “e” too — because it’s the preferred British spelling. But who am I to go against Ms. Laux (whom I also adore)? 🙂 Thanks for the heads up about Hailstones and Halibut Bones. Haven’t seen that one yet.

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  5. “Whose Turn is It” is charming and I LOVE the grays/greys in “A Young Scholar and His Tutor.” I am a fan of the darker greys. That’s a great prompt, Jama. xo

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  6. I’ve loved Tony Bennett all the years, so the first thing I thought of during your wonderful post, Jama, is “Gray skies are gonna clear up. put on a happy face. . . ” I don’t mind them, actually, since we have so few of them, I welcome them if it means rain. I so enjoyed the poem and the art and all the examples you shared. Thank you!

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    1. I’m a Tony Bennett fan too — great song! We’ll be singing it over here this weekend since it’s supposed to rain today and tomorrow. The grass is very happy.

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  7. It’s such a treat to read your posts and this one doesn’t disappoint. I happen to like the color gray and in the few quilts I’ve made, I have used gray a lot. It’s ubiquitous, isn’t it? Thanks for sharing Laux’s poem, it’s a fabulous celebration of grey. That grey suit really is lovely!

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    1. Colin is happy you like his suit. 🙂 I imagine gray is a good color for quilts — good neutral to balance out other colors and set off prints.

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  8. My graying hair and I could not love ODE TO GRAY and this entire post more. I’m partial to gray on walls, but in general (and especially in spring) am more of a green gal. Will come back to try your challenge!

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    1. LOL. I hear you on the gray hairs, Buffy! They seem to like my head for some strange reason. I also agree with you on being partial to green in general (love seeing the green leaves back on trees, and indoors I’ve used a lot of green for decor (curtains, cupboards, rugs).

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  9. Yay for gray! Jama, what a wonderful exploration of gray and its many shades.  I appreciate the breadth of your insights from Jean de Brunhoff to Rembrandt!  I, too, admire gray’s calming subtly.  I painted our family room a pale gray a few years ago, and that is where we spend the most time together. : )

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  10. ODE TO GREEN (with thanks to Dorianne Laux and Jama.)

    Oak leaf. Maple seed. Tall grass. House plants.
    Gardens when they wake.

    Spring green. Summer green. Autumn turns
    from green to orange,
    green to gold,
    green to russet on the ground.

    Carpet green. Car green.
    Pale green painted on the wall.

    Green plates. Green pots.
    Green curtains hanging in your room.

    Green eyes. Green skirt.
    Green sweater over green shirt.

    Envy green. Happy green.
    Mellow green while strolling down the trail.
    –Buffy Silverman

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  11. Red sauce bubbling on my stove on Sundays. We will eat our beet red pasta served in red white and green dishes imported from Italy! After finishing our delicious meal accompanied with a deep red Merlot, we will retire to the living room where Lady in Red is playing on the radio.

    Thanks for this lovely blogpost, Jama! Have a great month of May. May you be blessed with many red ripe tomatoes in your garden!

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    1. Oh, I want to visit you and smell the wonderful sauce cooking on the stove and then slurp up some pasta. And I love the song “Lady in Red”! Happy May to you too!!

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  12. My favorite gray is my dad’s sideburns – or rather my memory of them (which is also graying – lol). Love your deep dive into this shade. I look forward to trying your color assignment. Stay tuned!

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  13. Jama, what a lovely post about all things gray. I loved seeing the masterpieces and photography and even Babar the elephant, who I loved as a child. So much good gray and the list poem extensively covered the color. I do want to take up your challenge with another color. AND THANK YOU! I was so excited to see my name at the end of your post as the winner of the Pie Rats book. Thank you again and to Lisa Frenkel Riddiough and to Viking.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the post, Denise!! I’m a big Babar fan too. I actually like elephants in general, but Babar is extra special. You will not be able to resist reading Pie-Rats aloud, trust me. 🙂

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  14. This is such a fantastic poem — all the work it does even though it’s just a list (the reader has to infer all the action), the intentionality of the the list (as you pointed out), the surprises, AND it’s an ode (which the Poetry Sisters are writing next month). Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. It’s amazing how a seemingly simple list can elicit such varied responses in the reader. Looking forward to reading your ode!

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  15. I was running around yesterday morning and opened this post–but wanted to give reading it more time because I love gray. I love how it is the support of other colors that “pop.” I love fog and walking in the fog. That first quote is going in my journal right now because it’s also true for me.

    Your selection of art for this post is stunning and thought provoking as a prompt, as a tour of beautiful gray. Thank you, Jama. This is a post to savor.

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    1. Fog is great, isn’t it? So mysterious and rare when it occurs around here. Those little cat feet . . . 🙂

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  16. So much to love in this post, Jama. I love this line: “As soft as a dove’s feather, as hard as steel, as tiny as a mouse or as big as a whale, gray takes on many guises.” Thank you for all you put into your posts.

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  17. Thank you for your thoughtful tribute to an underrated color, Jama. While you state that gray is “happy to thrive without the emotional drama”, my choice at 22 to use gray as the color for my bridesmaid’s dresses (in 1989) has caused “emotional drama” for my sisters ever since! LOL! I love gray, especially when paired with a soft orange/peach (my other wedding color). Funnily enough, Gray is now a popular name – my 20 year old daughter is friends with 3 Grays, all the same age as her. 🙂

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    1. Wow, didn’t know Gray is a popular name these days. I like it! And how cool that your bridesmaid dresses were gray. I like it paired with baby pink — so we’re kind of on the same wave length.

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  18. Proof that not everything is black and white. Ha! What a delightful poem and post! I think I’ll be noting grey everywhere I go for a few days.

    And loved this line: “In a world of bright colors screaming for attention, there is much to be said for subtlety and quiet power.”

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  19. This is such a great spin on a color poem. I am going to try one of my own. Gray is such an interesting choice too. With the greens and the blooms of May, I wonder if I should challenge myself to think of a color I’m not seeing very much these days.

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