Blue the Marble Is

by Benjamin Oldham


Blue, blue the marble is

Hewn in stone by water underground

This hidden blue, our genesis

That springs and fills the pale abyss

And to the earth the color blue is bound;

Blue, blue the marble is.


But in my hands, it vanishes

The hue of water slips like rings around

This hidden blue, our genesis

In which to see its vastnesses

We must confront the things that still confound;

Blue, blue the marble is.


Though nature has no dye for this

Nor pigment for it in the world is found

This hidden blue, our genesis

In colors still unseen exist

The figments of a fleeting world beyond;

Blue, blue the marble is

This hidden blue, our genesis.