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.
Coloring Book
Analysis, meaning and summary of Connie Wanek's poem Coloring Book
2 Comments
Leave a Reply to Sarah Cancel reply
Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Connie Wanek better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.
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!
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….