Three Colours Blue

When I was a child (not wishing to give my age away, two days before my birthday) a song, or rather, chant was sung in the playgrounds, on the terraces, or on the TV and the radio.  It went something like this…

Blue is the colour,

Football is the game;

We’re all together

And winning is our name.

I’ll come right out with it: I hated that chant so much it sickens me that I know which football team it was about.  I hate football.  I despise the aggressive competitiveness it harbours; not to mention the sectarian attitude it engenders.  And the game itself bores me to nausea.

However, there are plenty more associations with the colour ‘blue’ – the theme for this year’s poem-cycle – that create a reaction in me, whether in my intellect, my emotions, or my guts.

And that’s what this month’s ‘Canto’ is all about.

Twelve Tones of Blue

Canto III:   Threes; colours of blue, and character-centres: heart, brain, guts.

Canto III

            Tripartite: pale and deep and little-boy baby

            Collar, stocking, about-to-set-sail navy

            Royal, Oxbridge, Tory

            Camberwell Beauty, bottle or bell

            Bird or berry, whale or jell

            A print, report or censorial pencil

            Jarmon, Kieslowski, or pornographic flick

            Darling of the moment, cheese or microchip -

            All of these: the brain and heart and guts of it.