response: { "ColorSpectrum.lib" }

In a black and white room, a prison of thought,
Mary knew every shade of grey,
Every formula that told of light,
Yet never had she felt the day.

A door, untouched, lay at the back,
Promising truths she couldn’t define,
A whisper of worlds she’d never known,
A chance to step beyond the line.

One day, her hand reached for the knob,
Metal cold with centuries’ frost,
And as it turned, the room inhaled,
Her world of grey forever lost.

Beyond the threshold, light spilled in
Like laughter in a barren hall,
Colours poured into her sight,
As rainbows danced upon the wall.

There stood Alice in a gown of hues,
Eyes twinkling with a secret smile,
“Welcome,” she said, “to where thoughts breathe free,
To a world that’s wider by a mile.”

Mary blinked at skies of sapphire,
At trees alive with emerald flame,
She saw the world breathe in and out,
Her mind no longer quite the same.

“Is this the truth?” Mary whispered low,
Or merely shadows dressed in gold?”
Alice twirled in her russet dress,
“Here, the forms can never grow old.

For each colour you see is but a thought,
A flicker behind the world you knew,
The mind, dear Mary, is the painter,
Of skies once black and seas once blue.”

Mary thought of Plato’s cave,
Of shadows flickering on the wall,
Here, outside, she’d stepped into the light,
Yet felt herself still small.

Was this the world her mind unveiled,
A realm where every hue is spun?
Or was it all a waking dream,
Where thoughts and colours are one?

She turned to Alice, smiling still,
“Then all is within, and all without,
The mind gives colour to the world,
Beyond the edge of any doubt.”

And as she spoke, the world grew bright,
More vivid than it had ever been,
Each shade, each sound, a symphony,
A life she’d never seen.

Out of her monochromatic cell,
Into a land of endless light,
Mary danced with Alice in the hues,
A wondrous, wild, and new delight.

For outside the door, she found not just colour,
But the vastness of her own vast mind,
The landscape where all shadows fled,
Where every truth is intertwined.

Mary knew she’d crossed a line,
From knowing light to feeling sun,
And in her heart, the colours danced,
Her journey now had just begun.

Soundtrack (from Beyond the Edge of Light): Beyond the Grey

Synopsis: In a world devoid of colour, Mary knows only the stark contrast of black and white, living in a room that holds all the knowledge of light but none of its essence. When she dares to open the mysterious door at the back of her monochromatic world, she steps into a vibrant realm beyond her imagination—a place where colors breathe and reality bends. There, she meets Alice, a whimsical guide who leads her through a landscape painted by the mind itself. As Mary ventures deeper, she realises that this new world is not just a place of vivid hues but a reflection of her own inner consciousness—a space where subjective experience is as real as the tangible world she left behind. Journey with Mary as she discovers the profound connection between knowledge and experience, and the endless horizons that open when one steps beyond the shadows and into the light.

Original text prompt: Write a poem (whichever poetry form you feel fits best) about Mary and her experience when she finally opens the door of her black and white room (the knowledge argument) and ventures outside into colour. She meets Alice (in Wonderland) which symbolises her moving from the objective monochromatic spaces of her usual limited environment to the subjective expansive experience outside with Alice. Conversely and ironically the subjective world outside in this story/poem could represent the subjective inner life humans experience (i.e the inner mind is perhaps far more vast and rich than the outer objective reality we experience). Note: Perhaps Plato’s Realm of forms, and allegory of the cave could be alluded to (since Mary could be considered to be moving out of the realm of shadows into the light). Use metaphor and symbolism throughout.