Poem: "The Color and Scent of Relaxation"
May. 17th, 2023 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the May 16, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from ng_moonmoth carried over from radiantfracture. It also fills the "Pest" square in my 5-1-23 card for the Pets and Animals Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the series Quixotic Ideas.
"The Color and Scent of Relaxation"
[2022-2023]
Magelights were an affordable way
to light a road at night -- not the fancy kind
that actual mages left hovering overhead,
but the smaller kind that flitted around
inside a bulb like enchanted fireflies.
The city bought those flawed bulbs
that everyone was talking about,
the ones that turn purple as they age.
It was spring when they began
to wear out, snow already gone
and flowers pushing up in its place.
Slowly the magelights faded
from white through blue.
Soon they dyed the street
in a pale artificial violet.
This made navigation
a little more challenging,
but it certainly cut down on
pests swarming the lights,
so that was a bonus.
Because it was spring,
something happened to
the bulbs, as if the qui
had gone a bit peculiar.
The light stopped fading
and stayed as it was
throughout the year.
It was beautiful.
It made you smell
perfume in the cold air,
lilac and lavender, scents
of spring and late summer.
All winter, the snow was
not white but violet, sparkling
like drifts of amethyst dust.
The next spring, when
the crocus bloomed, they
shone with their own light.
Something peculiar had
happened to their bulbs too.
People watched the bees
flying to and fro, carrying
knee-baskets of pollen that
glowed like tiny golden suns.
The petals themselves gleamed
with the same pale purple of
the magelights above them.
For blocks around downtown,
the city had become enchanting.
People traveled from miles away
to stroll in the aubergine evenings
and browse the marvelous shops
and buy snacks from street vendors.
Young lovers stole kisses in hidden niches,
and old lovers remembered being young.
In all seasons of the year, the air
was filled with lilac and lavender --
the color and scent of relaxation,
youthfulness, creativity, optimism.
Nobody even suggested trying
to change the magelights.
They would last however
long they lasted, and people
would enjoy it while they could.
When something that quixotic
happened, you didn't argue with it.
You just appreciated it.
* * *
Notes:
Prompt byng_moonmoth:
This came fromradiantfracture, who was writing scenes from a winter snow in their city:
"The city bought those flawed bulbs everyone is talking about, the ones that turn purple as they age. They dyed the street a pale artificial violet. It was beautiful. It made you smell perfume in the cold air, lilac and lavender, scents of spring and late summer."
(used with permission)
"Lavender – the color and scent of relaxation, youthfulness, creativity, imagination, optimism."
-- Unknown
ng_moonmoth carried over from radiantfracture. It also fills the "Pest" square in my 5-1-23 card for the Pets and Animals Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the series Quixotic Ideas."The Color and Scent of Relaxation"
[2022-2023]
Magelights were an affordable way
to light a road at night -- not the fancy kind
that actual mages left hovering overhead,
but the smaller kind that flitted around
inside a bulb like enchanted fireflies.
The city bought those flawed bulbs
that everyone was talking about,
the ones that turn purple as they age.
It was spring when they began
to wear out, snow already gone
and flowers pushing up in its place.
Slowly the magelights faded
from white through blue.
Soon they dyed the street
in a pale artificial violet.
This made navigation
a little more challenging,
but it certainly cut down on
pests swarming the lights,
so that was a bonus.
Because it was spring,
something happened to
the bulbs, as if the qui
had gone a bit peculiar.
The light stopped fading
and stayed as it was
throughout the year.
It was beautiful.
It made you smell
perfume in the cold air,
lilac and lavender, scents
of spring and late summer.
All winter, the snow was
not white but violet, sparkling
like drifts of amethyst dust.
The next spring, when
the crocus bloomed, they
shone with their own light.
Something peculiar had
happened to their bulbs too.
People watched the bees
flying to and fro, carrying
knee-baskets of pollen that
glowed like tiny golden suns.
The petals themselves gleamed
with the same pale purple of
the magelights above them.
For blocks around downtown,
the city had become enchanting.
People traveled from miles away
to stroll in the aubergine evenings
and browse the marvelous shops
and buy snacks from street vendors.
Young lovers stole kisses in hidden niches,
and old lovers remembered being young.
In all seasons of the year, the air
was filled with lilac and lavender --
the color and scent of relaxation,
youthfulness, creativity, optimism.
Nobody even suggested trying
to change the magelights.
They would last however
long they lasted, and people
would enjoy it while they could.
When something that quixotic
happened, you didn't argue with it.
You just appreciated it.
* * *
Notes:
Prompt by
ng_moonmoth:This came from
radiantfracture, who was writing scenes from a winter snow in their city:"The city bought those flawed bulbs everyone is talking about, the ones that turn purple as they age. They dyed the street a pale artificial violet. It was beautiful. It made you smell perfume in the cold air, lilac and lavender, scents of spring and late summer."
(used with permission)
"Lavender – the color and scent of relaxation, youthfulness, creativity, imagination, optimism."
-- Unknown
(no subject)
Date: 2023-05-18 05:30 am (UTC)Well ...
Date: 2023-05-18 06:04 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-05-19 12:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-05-18 05:35 am (UTC)You reminded me of a wonder from earlier, about how many variations there might be in the ultraviolet spectrum colouring accent marks in plants and possibly-insects that humans never bothered to study, since they think the only visible spectrum is the one they can see.
There could be so many other colour morphs that only the bees and butterflies appreciate.
- Gull (he/him)
Well ...
Date: 2023-05-18 06:03 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-05-18 07:49 pm (UTC)the original replacement lens for people with cataracts didn't filter out UV. So the people with them could see UV as well as visible light.
Some were used during WWII to pick up signals from agents on enemy coasts who were using UV signal lamps.
There's also an article in an *old* (1950s?) Sky & Telescope on naked eye UV astronomy written by someone who'd had the surgery.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-05-20 01:46 am (UTC)Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-05-20 08:35 pm (UTC)No if you are going to have *active* external lenses that compress the spectrum (ie use false-color display) that's a different matter.
Of course, by compressing the spectrum like that, you'll shift all the colors bit. So that the boundaries between red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet will move.
Which means colors close to the boundaries will shift. so some normal colors will look different while wearing the glasses/contacts.
Personal experience note. It may be possible to see near IR under the right conditions. As a teen I once woke up and noticed an odd glow in a corner of my room. Very faint pinkish color.
Got up and discovered in was coming from a pen type soldering iron I'd forgotten to unplug after using it. This was *not* remotely "red hot" It could, given time, melt lead.
Normally, you couldn't see this. but in a darkened room with dark adjusted eyes I could see this odd color.
For what it's worth, back then I could *almost* read a newspaper by moonlight.
So maybe it's just my eyes being weird (like my hearing) or maybe it's an innate human ability that's normally unnoticed. Either way, interesting.
Re: Well ...
Date: 2023-05-20 08:56 pm (UTC)If the device is easy to remove it might not be too much of a problem. Someone might also be able to design something like bifocals, which would allow the user to 'switch' between the standard vision and UV vision very easily.
>>Personal experience note. It may be possible to see near IR under the right conditions.<<
Apparently it is possible to see infrared with natural eyes:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141201161116.htm
I'd also expect that some people will be able to see a little more outside the visual spectrum than others, if only because there will be some variation in abilities across any population. How common and to what extent I do not know.
Studying it would be complicated in part by the while I Thought Everyone Could Do that tendency of people to believe that they are normal. I mean, how many people get to adulthood with undiagnosed colorblindness or face blindness? Although...if we could come up with a color test for UV or infrared light - think like those color-puzzle thingies that have a design to human-standard eyes but look monochrome to colorblind folks - it might be easier to test. They would have to come up with a way to make sure that the UV colors or infrared temps or whatever were consistent across all the images, though!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-05-20 07:23 pm (UTC)Ditto with stuff outside the usual range of our other sense, too (such as infrasound and ultrasound, or a lot of smells, etc).
Plus, even if someone could perceive it, it would be hard to communicate about it to people who lack the sense and in many cases lack the concept of sensory stimuli outside what they can perceive.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-05-18 09:03 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2023-05-18 10:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-05-20 01:02 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2023-05-20 02:07 am (UTC)