“Orange is the happiest color.” ~ Frank Sinatra

Warm, cheerful and uplifting, the color orange combines the passion of red with the positivity of yellow. Ever vibrant, orange inspires creativity, boosts energy and stimulates the appetite.

California-based poet Lori Levy once said that poets paint in words. I love how she’s embraced her orange palette to create the vivid images in today’s delightful poem.

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IN THE MOOD FOR ORANGE
by Lori Levy

I want to discover what's orange in the world:
to come upon a leopard lily;
flame lichen clinging to a rock.
A barn swallow's chest, a monarch's wing,
Or just a bird-of-paradise against the sky.

I could slice a mango or suck on a section
of tangerine. Make soup for lunch
with pumpkin, squash, carrots, yams.
Could settle down by a fire, copper and blue,
or by the orange glow of a glass lamp.

What I have in mind is a fat ripe sun
the scarlet of a California poppy --
and me in an ocher-orange dress,
lips painted mandarin, twirling
to the rattle of Mexican maracas

until I drop like the sun
and the world grows dark again.

~ from In the Mood for Orange (Gvanim, 2007)

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Revel in it!

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