Hues by Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska

Shattering the Monotony: Finding Your True Colors in Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska’s “Hues”

What if the emptiness you feel isn’t an absence of life, but an overwhelming surplus of unexpressed potential waiting to break free?

Hues

Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska

Here is purple – a tree’s shadow walking the gravel path,
the purple linking the red and the sapphire in love. –
There – the pinkish bark and the joyous green of birches,
and in the flitting dress of the green – the skies’ blue circles.
But within me the white, white, white dwells monotonously –
because in me I carry the hues’ focused mystery. –
Within the white of my whiteness oh how I suffer so –
I want to be a hue – who will smash me into rainbow?

Source

Reflection

Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska opens “Hues” with a lush visual feast: purple shadows, joyous birch greens, and glimpses of sky blue. Yet the narrator turns inward to confront an agonizing blankness—a “white, white, white” that feels monotonous and stagnant. In optical physics, white light is not a void; it holds the entire visible spectrum concentrated together. The speaker’s suffering stems not from emptiness, but from containing immense, undifferentiated potential that yearns to be released: “who will smash me into rainbow?”

In contemporary life, we often find ourselves trapped in that very same uniform whiteness. We curate predictable routines, suppress bold impulses to maintain harmony, and let day-to-day monotony mute our individuality. We witness the vivid vitality of the world around us while holding our own gifts tightly coiled within.

Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska reminds us that genuine living requires refraction. The “smashing” she craves is not destruction, but the courage to encounter friction—a prism of new experiences, vulnerability, or bold artistic risks. Stepping into that vulnerability splits safe uniformity into vibrant action, transforming silent containment into living color.

As you read this poem, ask yourself: What safe, uniform part of your life needs to be broken open so your true spectrum can emerge?