Onyx and Alabaster

image borrowed from thisnext.com

Onyx and Alabaster

“There is something really appealing about the simplicity

of black & white images.”--Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 

Most formal affairs,

weddings, funerals or balls,

demand black & white.

Do we dream 

in color--or is it

just mysterious shades

of the full

spectrum of black & white;

all black roses.

& white lions, 

onyx jewelry

& alabaster statues?

Pondering this inquiry, I find it difficult

to pinpoint, to absolutely define;

perhaps dreamscapes are sepia-soaked, 

or washed out starlit colors?

I am positive, though,

that I daydream in color,

all azure eyes, pink nipples, & red convertibles.

Growing up in the 1950’s, so much of what I recall

       is definitely in black and white, from our first B&W television,

                 with its 12” perfectly round screen & its heavy oaken case,

                           still looking like a living room radio, to the Saturday

                 afternoon Hopalong Cassidy Matinees at the local cinema.

        Oh sure, by 1955, we had all heard of Color TV, but only a few

friends from wealthy families had one--and there were only

a few select programs that were broadcast in color, WALT DISNEY

HOUR, variety shows, BONANZA & such.

As a kid,

it seemed to me that

the colors were

super-saturated & way overdone, with hot lighting, over-bright clothes

& sets, bizarre make-up & lipstick like the movies of the 20’s, feeling

very unnatural to my 11-year old sensitivities--much like I feel about

the modern craze of photoshopping color images, shifting them from

realistically-hued into the realm of abstract. So I was happy to

retreat to the majority of TV shows, comfortably presented in

stark & sharp-edged B&W.

Color was still a bit of an oddity, a weird & special treat; like that 

                 one roll of color film for birthday or holiday parties;

                 I mean the horror movies & all the classic Noir

                 crime films were exclusively in black & white,

                                    all wet brick & cobblestone night shots,

                                    harvest moon & rampaging werewolves.

                                    & villagers with torches & pitchforks, as

movie studio cinematographers made those

classics of light & shadow into an Art form.

                 By the 60’s & 70’s fewer & fewer movies were

                             shot on black & white stock, & those few

                                     that were by Stanley Kramer, Peter Bogdanovich

                                                 and Woody Allen conjured up a nostalgic,

                                                 gritty & realistic view of the past. I cannot

                                                 even imagine TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

                                      in gaudy technicolor.

Today, in our techno-savvy digital imagery world, it becomes an artful

& joyous experiment to showcase both our photoshopped color photos

& their black & white version/counterpart side-by-side. It is kind of

fascinating to me how many of our youth enjoy that juxtaposition as

we boomers & duffers recall the glory of decades past cataloged &

framed in glorious black & white.

Eyes are designed

to process color, but black

& white is restful.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

would you like to hear me read this B&W poem to you?