Hailstones and Halibut Bones

​Years ago on a walk around a suburban Annapolis, Maryland, neighborhood, I came upon one of those Little Free Libraries that dot the country, including at least three in Grantham.  In that sweet library, I found Hailstones and Halibut Bones, Adventures in Poetry and Color by Mary O’Neill.  By the time I read the first few poems, I had fallen in love with the book.  It became my go-to book for presents for special people in my life.  My sister Sandy would turn off the lights in her grandchildren’s bedroom just before Nico and Elsa went to sleep.  She would read one poem a night by flashlight.  Finally Nico asked “Nana, can you please read all the colors.”  I plan to share a lot of the poems on this blog and include pictures of flowers included in the poems.  If you can’t wait though, I recommend you buy a copy.  The book was published in 1961 and is still popular today. 
 
Unlike all the other poems in the book, this poem doesn’t name any flowers so the flowers I’ve chosen to accompany this blog are an unusual sort of black one and and one pretty white one. 

The Colors live
Between black and white
In a land we
Know best by sight.
But knowing best
Isn’t everything,
For colors dance
And colors sing,
And colors laugh
And colors cry------
Turn off the light
And colors die,
And they make you feel
Every feeling there is
From the grumpiest grump
To the fizziest fizz.
And you and you and I
Know well
Each has a taste
And each has a smell
And each has a wonderful
Story to tell……  

Flowers from the gardens of Sharon Parker and Ruth Stavis.