This poem is an excerpt from my future book, “The Blue Book of Poetry and Life”. I hope it brings you joy while you wait for it!

What does it mean to be blue?
Is it a color or a feeling,
An emotion of sadness fleeting,
Of depression completing,
Or of shame all-concealing?

Is it a shade
Or a gemstone like jade,
Emanating its light from afar,
That of the sky’s brightest stars,

Or is it cool
As ice — Absolute Zero —
Utterly frozen

As the hue of the ocean,
Of fear and blending in,
Or the flag of freedom in the air, flying;
Also in white and red, solidarity uniting,
The purpose of the most idealistic writing?

Have you ever seen the atmosphere
— Outer space, even, beyond here? —
Where Uranus and Neptune are like
Water on Earth and its frostbite,
Frigid as the winter’s night:

A shark, a whale,
The winds that make boats sail,
The comfort when believing in others fails
Amidst the hurricanes’ ruthless gales,
Which like tornadoes deluge the fields with hail
— Like snow but on a more dangerous scale —

The aurora’s veil;

The numbness that consumes
Ice-covered tombs,
Which the future exhumes
To retrieve the treasure
— Diamonds and jewels,
Turquoise and azul?

A painter’s favorite pleasure
As the model
For a still-life,
Is still
The cut stone of a ring for the wife,

A peace offering
To end the strife,
Yet the deepest blues
Cannot do
— if the rumors are true —,

They only bring suffering
To those who supply the idols with their proferrings,
Which belong
To those who are green with envy,
With blueblack avarice plenty,
— The tragedy of broken glass,
The marriage of greed and treachery —,
Of cursed success.

But what does the color blue mean to you?

Joy and comfort, solace and transparency,
Opacity if you cannot appreciate the hue,
The shade of the sky above us,
The proof of a God who loves us,
Of the stars and galaxies around us,
The shimmering oceans — so inviting,
As tourmaline shining —

Maybe to you it is just another color,
The gifts of arts and crafts between faithful lovers,
Or perhaps it is another symbol of wealth…

But what does the color blue mean to you?

Maybe something that cannot be bought
— Only sought —,
From relationships and of the Earth’s health,
That it is reciprocal and true,
That — no matter what —
Even that, that which must come from within and above:

Are the universal necessities — happiness and unconditional love!

Published by Andrew Blitman

Andrew Blitman is a poet and artist who is also the webmaster of this blog. He is the published author of 13 books, including "Birthright 2012: A Voyage into the Heart and Soul of Israel" and the "Wild Writers" Series. He can be reached at this e-mail address: andrew.blitman@gmail.com View all posts by Andrew Blitman