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Jacques Stanley Fleury is a Haitian American Poet, Educator, and author of four books. He has a degree in Liberal Arts and is pursuing graduate studies in the literary arts through Harvard University. His first book, Sparks in the Dark: A Lighter Shade of Blue, A Poetic Memoir about life in Haiti and America, was endorsed by The Boston Globe. Fleury is prominently featured in newspapers, anthologies, libraries, and literary journals worldwide. Visit him at:  http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.

The Color Purple

Jacques Stanley Fleury

I choose a rich purple shade
bearing a substantive connection to my ancestry
the African deities who gave birth to our humanity!
it is said to evoke visions of nobility, royalty, wisdom
creativity, spirituality, mystery  magicality
a colorful synthesis of soothing blue and spirited red!
becking forth recollections of powerful deities
it’s paler shades suggest romantic allusions
and a state of peaceful composure
while its darker shades  shift
to suggest a state of dejection and spiritual elevation
its rich darker shade signity wealth luxury grandeur  power
but it is double sided in that it can betoken  melancholy
and frustration when applied superfluously
I suspect for some men it can denote
some feminine qualities… rightfully regulating
the dominant notions of masculinity
while its violet shade can symbolize passion, ambition
creativity and mourning in some aspects of cultural identity
it can accentuates one’s individuality in a crowd
replete with antiquated notions of conformity
its blending of red and blue can birth
deliberate intrinsic serenity and stability
it is a celebrated historical scarcity
purple pigment extracted from seal mollusks
enhanced its costly rarity attainable only to the aristocracy…
But now the color purple has been reclaimed
and integrated into our everyday commonality
and individuality attainable to anyone who
deems themselves fit for royalty!

— Jacques Stanley Fleury

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