Dare to be Red | Poetry Breakdown

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I always thought the color red wouldn’t look good on me.
Instead, I sought out colors you would always find
deep in the richness of dirt –
a mossy green
a golden fungus yellow
an earthy tan
a silver pebble.
I couldn’t help but admire the brightest of colors
and especially how they shone on the skin.
Mystical like the stars
Alluring like flowers
Dangerous and poisonous.
As I tried on the brightest colors,
I suddenly shone, sending me reeling.
	But if felt good to be almost daring
	to be almost unnatural
	nearly artificial but
	just as attractive. 
A dual persona – maybe that’s why our blood bleeds red when cut as I become pale.

I was testing out this poetry prompt generator by Robert Peake that I found on a whim. The way it works is that you can get a number of random words to include in your poem, prompt challenges, and an image to “help get your creative juices flowing”. It was pretty fun to play around with. The words I got were: caring, herzen, dominion, gaskell, and black-warm. I was challenged to include a familiar smell, which I actually used for the poem I published last week. Even though I didn’t use any of the words that the generator provided for me, the word black-warm somehow inspired this poem about colors. I was really intrigued with the word, black-warm since it felt really visual. Why caused warmth to be categorized to black? Does this include the color? Is there a symbolic meaning behind it? It sort of gave me a reaction like an evil villain casting unnatural black flames. If you’re wanting to change up your poetry, then check out the poetry generator!

This is a poem about identity and wanting to fit in, but finding it uncomfortable only to realize the comfort in being the outlier. It’s more attractive when you are confidently expressing yourself rather than conforming to what everyone else is doing. Yet if you find yourself dividing yourself between conforming to society’s standards and being yourself, you could end up hurting others and yourself as stated in my last line in my poem.

In middle school, I thought that I would have a greater idea of who I was and who I wanted to be by the time I was in high school when in reality, I would be exploring who I could be more so in college. True to my poem, I learned that I preferred earthy tones rather than warmer colors. I learned that I prefer solitude and closer friendships rather than being in a group setting and having many acquaintances. Knowing what you like and don’t like and being decisive really helps build your character even with something as simple as your favorite color. By the way, my favorite color is forest green – a beautiful deep and rich green.

What is your favorite color and when did you realize it? Have you ever felt conflicted with your identity? Let me know in the comments below! Feel free to check out my writing Instagram and Ko-Fi in the links below – your contribution means a lot to me and helps me continue to post these blog posts! Thank you for reading my poem!

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