I will write my name in fire red
“We are cross-stitching silk roses on a pale background. We can colour the roses as we choose and mine are green, blue and purple. Underneath, I will write my name in fire red, Antoinette Mason, n’e Cosway, Mount Calvary Convent, Spanish Town, Jamaica, 1839.”
—Jean Rhys, from Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966.
Heaven and Hell
“Everything was brightness, or dark. The walls, the blazing colours of the flowers in the garden, the nuns’ habits were bright, but their veils, the Crucifix hanging from their waists, the shadow of the trees, were black. That was how it was, light and dark, sun and shadow, Heaven and Hell. . . .”
—Jean Rhys, from Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966.
Pull down the stars
“Blot out the moon,
Pull down the stars.
Love in the dark, for we’re for the the dark
So soon, so soon.”
—Jean Rhys, from Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966.
Devil With The Blue Dress On
“Devil with the blue dress, blue dress, blue dress
Devil with the blue dress on. . . .
Wearin’ her wig hat and shades to match
She’s got high-heel shoes and an alligator hat
Wearin’ her pearls and her diamond rings
She’s got bracelets on her fingers, now, and everything.”
—Devil with the Blue Dress, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, 1966.
your red shoes
“Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.”
—Let’s Dance, David Bowie, 1999.
like white on rice
“I’m gonna stick to you like white on rice.”
—Warm Daddy, by Eddie Bo, 1960.
from green to red
“But darlin’ can’t you see my signals turn from green to red’”
—Crosstown Traffic, Jimi Hendrix, from the album Electric Ladyland, 1968.
Diamond Cutter
“The Diamond Sutra is the world’s oldest known complete and dated book. Published in China in A.D. 868, it was printed in ink with woodblocks onto paper sheets that were then assembled into a scroll.
Within the text, the title of the book is explained in this way:
Subhuti asked, ‘World Honored One, by what name should this Discourse be known?’
Buddha answered, ‘This Discourse should be known as The Vajracchedika Prajna Paramita—The Diamond Cutter of Transcendental Wisdom—for it is the Teaching that is hard and sharp like a diamond that cuts through misconception and delusion.’”
—translation by Edward Conze.
Full Strawberry Moon.
“June. This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!”
—from the online Farmer’s Almanac, 2006.
Full Pink Moon.
“April. This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.”
—from the online Farmer’s Almanac, 2006.