What Do You Mean When You Say Green?: And Other Poems of Color

The poems in Lori Levy’s chapbook burst with color, a world filled with the “scent of eucalyptus,” “under skies pregnant with treetops/and the flapping wings of birds.” Poems travel from a kibbutz in Israel, to Panama and Vermont, places ripe with pumpkins and yams and “the rattle of Mexican maracas.” When a guest slices and plates a papaya for breakfast it is transformed into an unforgettable experience. Even the sadness of a relative sick in the hospital or a parent aging is gracefully accepted. These poems demand the reader pay attention to even “a whisper in the woods,” all the sounds, tastes and especially the colors that make life meaningful. This collection dazzles with color and taste and vibrancy.

—Carol V. Davis, author of Below Zero

Full of wisdom and experience, the colors in Lori Levy’s poems explore a range of subjects in terms of hue, lightness and saturation. They surprise and delight like the refraction and dispersion of light through a prism. Whether she is writing about “the scarlet of crepe myrtles in LA,” “a brown bird hopping on a garbage can lid,” or “vines sprouting from the sand in the Negev desert,” Levy offers us a kaleidoscope of successive reflections on the things that matter to us most in life. They speak to us of the importance of family and, from a wider perspective, of the need for tolerance and understanding in an increasingly fragmented world.

—Neil Leadbeater, author of The Gloucester Fragments

I've been in love with Lori Levy's poems for years, and What Do You Mean When You Say Green? And Other Poems of Color contains some of her best. The memories in a blue/brown/pink mug painted by grandchildren, the allure of a red-orange sliver of mango, the majesty of gold in the afternoon sun...these poems paint portrait after portrait of love, pain, understanding, and absolution. Lori takes us from a kiosk in the LAX airport to a kibbutz sunroom in the Negev desert to a hammock in Panama. This poetic rainbow will make you smile, make you think, and make you grateful for this colorful world we live in.

—Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, author of Dancing with My Daughter and editor of YourDailyPoem.com