Purple Martins, poem by Carl Sandburg

PURPLE MARTINS
By Carl Sandburg

If we were such and so, the same as these,

maybe we too would be slingers and sliders,

tumbling half over in the water mirrors,

tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun,

tumbling our purple numbers.
 
Twirl on, you and your satin blue.

Be water birds, be air birds.

Be these purple tumblers you are.
 
Dip and get away

From loops into slip-knots,

Write your own ciphers and figure eights.

It is your wooded island here in Lincoln Park.

Everybody knows this belongs to you.
 
Five fat geese

Eat grass on a sod bank

And never count your slinging ciphers,

your sliding figure eights.
 
A man on a green paint iron bench,

Slouches his feet and sniffs in a book,

And looks at you and your loops and slip-knots,

And looks at you and your sheaths of satin blue,

And slouches again and sniffs in the book,

And mumbles: It is an idle and a doctrinaire exploit.
 
Go on tumbling half over in the water mirrors.

Go on tumbling half over at the horse heads of the sun.

Be water birds, be air birds.

Be these purple tumblers you are.

PAINTING: “Purple Martins” by John James Audubon

Mauve by Simon Garfield

What a fascinating subject for a book! Yes, this is all about the color mauve. The story begins in 1856, when a young English chemist named William Perkin accidentally discovers a way to mass produce color in a factory. Before this, dyes were derived from natural sources such as insects, roots, and leaves — and coloring fabrics, creating paint, and making ink were laborious, haphazard (and expensive!) processes. While trying to concoct a treatment for malaria in his London laboratory, Perkin produced an oily substance that turned silk a beautiful light purple.

According to the book jacket for Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World by Simon Garfield, “Mauve became the most desirable shade in the fashion houses of Paris and London, but its importance extended far beyond ball gowns. It sparked new interest in industrial applications of chemistry research, which later brought about the development of explosives, perfume, photography, and modern medicine.”