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A Colorful Year (poems)

January

Silver sings such sweet songs, a whisper of moonlight

February

Red might shout but what red’s really about is something akin to passion

March

Yellow unfolds in morning, leaning into the blue of sky, a reminder of why we find joy in small moment

April

Green sleeps unbidden, a hidden seed in the weeds waiting for a moment to dance

May

Pink is punk, the unexpected beautiful voice of a passionate embrace

June

Blue, like strings on a beat-up guitar; strummed chords that find you, wherever you are

July

Orange burns from its center, first, and then extends itself outwards

August

Purple hides and hints at transformation, a small creation of wonder and love

September

Teal and turquoise - color cousins – holding hands as twilight calls

October

Brown, fingers dirty from digging, the Earth is singing something sweet

November

Gray days, but not always gloom; there’s room for all emotion

December

Gold holds us in the magic of each moment; collaboration

Collection of poems for the 2026 CLMOOC Calendar Project https://clmooc.com/clmooc-calendar-project-2026-a-colorful-year/

Day 24

Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings — Muriel Rukeyser, Elegy Of Joy https://poets.org/poem/elegy-joy

A story, unspooled, still has its start somewhere —

Untangle the lines of rhythm and rhyme to find the nub

and pull

for Advent Of Joy

Day 23

An hour ago the storm was here — John Keble, The Rainbow https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/john-keble/the-rainbow/

And now, the debris;

the world pulled apart -

We wipe our eyes free

and get down to work

for Advent Of Joy

I am from paper, from scribbled lines, from stories told in frozen time, from pencil marks and scattered poems, from notes to self, inside small glass homes, from wagging tails and hooks and pins, from laughter where our lives have been; I am from the memory we share as gift, and on the darkest days, where the light still lifts us into the embrace of love

for #OpenWrite

Day 22

My heart to the recurrence of the springs — Robinson Jeffers, Wonder And Joy https://poets.org/poem/wonder-and-joy

My heart to the subtle breeze of the wind My pulse to the rolling music of the rivers My love to expanse of the infinite forests My joy to this intricate world

for Advent Of Joy

It's all light from here - incremental solitude standing beside stones

for Algot

In A Family Of Artists

She's parsing pieces of old magazine pages into odd collage (for my wife)

An eye for detail, and cinematic focus; he threads each story (for my eldest son)

Switching to vinyl, the Brooklyn club DJ spins his grandfather's jazz (for my middle son)

Beats and loops and rhymes - broken signatures of time - he builds songs, slowly (for my youngest son)

for #OpenWrite

Day 21

To where it bent in the undergrowth — Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken

Such a path, overgrown in parts, and then slightly abandoned, active only by animals wandering the world by night

for Advent Of Joy

Moose became the moniker Murph taunted me with - me, always the bigger one - but eventually I got even on our hard-scrabble sand lot football field, tackling him a bit harder than I should have - I could have used more restraint - and yet there we are, stuck in the photograph, the two of us kids, laughing with our bodies crooked, years of friendship and music still ahead of us

for #OpenWrite

Day 20

My dust will find a voice — Sara Teasedale, The Answer https://poets.org/poem/answer

With whispers, my words will tumble and shift: an hourglass turned upside down, adrift

for Advent of Joy