Each picture is heartbreakingly banal,
a kitten and a ball of yarn,
a dog and bone.
The paper is cheap, easily torn.
A coloring book’s authority is derived
from its heavy black lines
as unalterable as the ten commandments
within which minor decisions are possible:
the dog black and white,
the kitten gray.
Under the picture we find a few words,
a title, perhaps a narrative,
a psalm or sermon.
But nowhere do we come upon
a blank page where we might justify
the careless way we scribbled
when we were tired and sad
and could bear no more.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Connie Wanek's poem Coloring Book

2 Comments

  1. Sarah says:

    sounds like something for inspiration! I need to figure what it means and why it was written for a project and I have til June 7th so any help between now and June 7th will be appreciated thanks!

  2. yann rolland says:

    It seems like a prison for inspiration this coloring book, but there is a lot of memories in it, and the childhood learns imagination through this prison and learns to grow up….It seems to me that this coloring book is a step towards poetry….

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