A Poem

Blue Umbrellas

The beautiful creativity of innocence

As I have previously stated here on Medium, one of my favourite poems is Blue Umbrellas by D.J.Enright.

I love this poem because it celebrates the innocence of childhood perceptions. And it refers to the loss of those innocent perceptions by virtue of being introduced to the system of a formal education. The child sees what we call a peacock as a blue umbrella, a richer visual description of the actual animal than the word peacock.

Now this theme of seeing the world through the eyes of a child actually belongs to a very rich vein in the arts at least. Pablo Picasso stated “ It took me four years to paint like Rafael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

And another little gem I adore is Supertramp’s Logical Song which very cleverly uses formal, stultifying language to rail against the very system that produced it. Moreover, it is a plea from an alienated man disconnected from the social norms that created him. He is yearning to regress back to a simpler life of childhood glee, a world of freedom with joy rediscovered holding sway over a formally acquired system of logic.

Closer to home, in the form of my lovely wife, I have my very own version of this innocent abroad inventing its own expressions to communicate very simple ideas in an endearingly childlike manner.

This morning she heard the sound of thunder and exclaimed “ Oh, the clouds are shouting ! ” What a wonderful, original way to express an every day event.

Another time when I had a sneezy cold she told me to be careful not to spray her with my nose water. What a marvellously descriptive image of such an anti social, though unavoidable, act of the human body expelling what we normally, disgustingly, refer to as snot.

And my favourite so far is what she calls a “ Yummy spot.” A yummy spot is simply a food stain on your tee shirt. Again, it is just so descriptive, far more so than calling it a gravy stain.

I so love these little snippets which are simply born out of a lack of knowledge of the accepted nouns. However, grammatically incorrect as they may be, they are no less meaningful or powerful in communicating the idea. Indeed they may well be even more powerful and meaningful than the originals.

Shouting Clouds A Natural Born Wonder

“The clouds are shouting” I hear her say As a dazzle of lightning flashes across The horizon. “It’s tewibbly fwightening at this time of day.” Her trembling voice stumbling across the bed that she lies on.

Who am I to tell her she’s wrong with her noun With a slap on the wrist and disapproving frown? Who am I to chide her for her innocent ways To call sneeze triggered mucous “Nose water sprays”? Who am I to tell her that a gravy stain is not What she likes to call “Mummy’s little yummy spot” Because her mind isn’t trained in educated ways? It matters not if it’s “sprays” or if it’s not If it’s a “shout”or even if it’s “thunder” In a gathering storm from far away yonder Whatever you call it, just like her, It’s a natural born wonder.