When Giving is All We Have

“You gave me blue and I gave you yellow / Together we are simple green” (Line 13). Drawing on its association with nature, particularly the arrival of spring after winter, the color green has long symbolized renewal and growth, vitality and newness. It is suggestive of rich fertility and the promise of growth and hope. In Stanza 7, the poem uses the fact that in pigments, green is made by mixing blue and yellow as a metaphor for the reciprocal nature of giving to others: Only when one person brings yellow and the other blue can green emerge. 

The verb choice is important to note here: “Together we are simple green” (Line 14). It is not that we make green. Rather we become this color, which is “simple” in the sense of “pure” and “absolute.” Although the bearers of blue and yellow are marked by their unlikeness (which can be read as diversity of background, ethnicity, race, or heritage), they come together, creating something greater than our “difference” (Line 17).

The poem opens with a two-line italicized epigraph about a river’s “journey” toward other rivers. The poem uses the river to symbolize the potential of things coming together.