Coloring The Words Poem by gershon hepner

Adding blue to violet and yellow,
Vermeer produced a bonnet that seemed white,
but writers, when they’re trying to seem mellow,
can’t hide by coloring the words they write.


Jim Dwyer describes the fascination of the Vermeer exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum for people who have read Tracy Chevalier’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” “Visiting the Met, Guided by a Maid in a Novel About Vermeer, ” NYT, May 25,2001) . The story is narrated by Griet, a maid in the Vermeer household:

One sequence involves the painting of “Woman With a Water Jug, ” and Griet explains to her father that the woman wears a headpiece that looks white. “When you look at her cap long enough, you see that he has not really painted it white, but blue, and violet, and yellow.” “But it’s a white cap, you said.” “Yes, that’s what’s so strange. It’s painted in many colors, but when you look at it, you think it’s white.”

5/27/01