In a White Room

In a white room is a song, In a White Room is a poem, a design concept even. To experience life as a blank canvas, you try living in a White Room.

White Room

Preferably try painting a White Room white.... This is almost a Koan in action. I know what happened when I tried. Ideas flooded in and I had to put the brush down and pick up the pen. Then I got to thinking about the Room - who else was inspired by it? I came up with the idea of this lens. Poems, songs, thoughts from a White Room....

Intro image of snowdrops is my own work, please do not copy.

Poetry written whilst decorating

Lying back,

Like Michaelangelo,

Pinned to the scaffold,

Stuccoed eyes

Beaded with sweat;

Fumes,

Stinging,

Clothe the white expanse ahead.

Unsure,

Yet certain,

Where whiteness yawns

Lies rainbowed richness

Dripping with

The softness of Angels

Through barren Time

Until the clouds beneath,

Once more a spectrum of intent,

Nourish dreams within the strokes

And smiles through dust....

(c) Lisa Marie Gabriel August 14th 2009

www.photahsiamirabel.co.uk

Hopefully you will see some of my work here, you may also see work by others that has been wrongly tagged. What you can also do is use the search box to find just about anything, including poetry, paint or even Eric Clapton! Enjoy :D

Why paint everything white?

When you go to the store, there are so many colour options. You get so excited about choosing paint, carpets, linen to try and make that ideal statement of where you currently "are". I find the colours I choose tend to be much the same - I am fond of the cooler end of the spectrum, less fond of the pinks and yellows. (Although a bright orange has me smiling)

I like to paint a new room white first to give the paint a fresh start - old colours can bleed through making two or even three coats seem dull and conflicted. Painting it white is like cleaning the slate - and in that scenario comes the invariably white ceiling. White on white.... Sometimes a room is white or offwhite and just needs refreshing - that is where I am with my poems. As I try to make sense of where I am and where I was, the words often come to me....

...this could well lead me into something longer!

Now breezy Autumn

Touches trees to early flame...

An Equinocturne....

(c) Lisa Marie Gabriel

Snow White Mouse Pad

The original White Room everybody remembers was by Cream. Here are some links to the lyrics of the Cream version and Sheryl Crowe's version.

Meantime, it's time for me to take a coffee break! The paint is getting intoxicating and I think I am seeing things....

Legal and accurate White Room guitar TAB and White Room Bass TAB with vocals and chords

Here is an easy guitar TAB download version of White Room by Eric Clapton.

Desert walls suck emulsion dry;

Dry as life draining the brilliant white

Of responsibility to the dregs.

I should be flying now -

Vancouver bound -

But I am flying without a harness

Between Earth and Sky,

Making my mark on walls

I hope you'll see one day,

Knowing that I must fly

Where I belong!

Flying without a harness;

Flying over brilliant white lands -

Greenland,

Iceland,

Hudson's Bay -

Flying without a harness,

Flying without daffodils

To a place my heart belongs!

(c) Lisa Marie Gabriel 2009

White is said not to be a colour, but it is not the absence of colour! In terms of light, white contains all the colours of the spectrum and in terms of pigment it reflects them all. Choosing a white for a room allows many options and selecting the right one makes all the difference. For me, it is brilliant every time, but usually it is best to choose a shade that complements your rugs, curtains and furnishings. Shades of cool blue are recommended with contemporary looks and modern furniture, and a hint of warm beige or gold with antique dark woods.

White cats notwithstanding, natural light from windows goes through a whole range of colours from dawn until dusk; from lilac or pink in the morning, to pale yellow at noon, to orange at sunset. Light can also drain the tints in off-white paint; in a dark room white can seem almost blue grey and artificial light which heightens yellow or red tints can make blue or green ones seem dull and grey. Similarly, where there is a lot of natural light matt finish is good, but where there is less silk has more life.

Ceilings can be difficult to get right. If you want to use a tinted white on the ceiling, it is difficult to ensure even coverage. I usually paint in sections and judge where I have been by the fact that wet paint is reflective and dry paint is not. Using matt on a ceiling makes this easier and defects are less obvious than with silk. You can of course buy tinted paint that dries white, but this has no tint after drying. Good luck with painting it white, and don't say I didn't warn you about the effects!

Now looking back at this sad poem with happier reflections

Meanwhile,

In the I-ness of this eternal minute,

I watch paint dry,

White on white;

Disappearing into vast one-ness

Of which I have no concept.

Was it the moment we stood;

Two souls seemed to me as one

Across a white room?

I felt the touch

Of another heart on mine,

Longed for soft warmness

On that winter night.

When did I lose the plot?

When I melted in your smile,

Or when, unbidden,

Gave too much of Love and Light?

In that brief moment,

Lost,

Should I have told you more?

Risked all I had?

So little -

Yet it seemed so much -

Gambled it all

On the sharing

Of unspoken dreams -

A nervous touch?

Meanwhile,

In the eternal I-ness of this minute

I watch the paint dry,

White on white -

Disappearing

Into the vast white One-ness

Of a dream

You did not understand.

Lisa Gabriel, 7th August 2005

This is a new, hitherto unpublished and original poem shared here and on my own website. I hope it is one you will all enjoy.

The Gift Of Innocence

How, with the arrogance of Youth,

The Vanity of Ignorance,

I sought to find myself in you;

To assuage my loneliness,

In love so pure it failed to see your own!

Salt, sweet tears - my onlyness recalled

In gift of sweat on lip and brow -

Such Love, felt visited in dreams,

You left me learn my innocence....

And smiling now - you walk away -

To leave me find a path I know;

Your hair grown darker now perhaps,

Blue eyes sparkling with delight

Now reunited with Your Loss!

My fast grown new maturity

Knows Love without agenda;

Abandoning attachment, sets you free -

Though Dawn with scent and blush of Rose I miss

Yet I am found in Love and lost in Poetry....

(c) Lisa Marie Gabriel August 28th 2009

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