Write Poetry Using Colors

 

I recently heard a children's author and illustrator suggest a writing exercise that might be fun. 

She said to visit your local paint store, or department within a larger store, and gather as many paint chip samples as your conscience will allow. 

Take them home, spread them out, and start working on a poem using the paint chip color names. You'll want to play around with them to see what different places they can take you. You're not locked into these names only, but use them as a base for the poem you write. See how many names you can incorporate.

Here are a few that I found at a Sherwin Williams website:

• Repose Gray
• Pink Shadow
• Gauntlet Gray
• Reflection
• Crushed Ice
• Rosedust
• White Hyacinth
• Queen Anne Lilac
• Cajun Red
• Sea Salt
• Passive

These are only a few samples. You'll find many more to your own liking when you visit a place with myriad paint chips. While you're choosing, remember that someone had to come up with these interesting names. One more kind of writing.

I think you could do this with prose as well, although the exercise seems to lend itself to poetry very well. 

Writing exercises can be very simple but productive. You might have fun picking out those paint chips at the store. Take them home, sort them out, slip them around and see what comes of it.