What is Black?

Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net

What is Black?

Black is the night
When there isn't a star
And you can't tell by looking
Where you are.
Black is a pail of paving tar.
Black is jet
And things you'd like to forget.
Black is a smokestack
Black is a cat,
A leopard, a raven,
A high silk hat.
The sound of black is
"Boom!  Boom!  Boom!"
Echoing in
An empty room.

Black is kind--
It covers up
The run-down street,
The broken cup.

Black is charcoal
And patio grill,
The soot spots on
The window sill.
Black is a feeling
Hard to explain
Like suffering but
Without the pain.
Black is licorice
And patent leather shoes
Black is the print
In the news.
Black is beauty
In its deepest form,
The darkest cloud
In a thunderstorm.
Think of what starlight
And lamplight would lack
Diamonds and fireflies
If they couldn't lean against
Black....

~ Mary O'Neill

I love all these different descriptions of the color black, especially "things you'd like to forget", the sound it makes, and the final image.  I also like how O'Neill uses rhymes in her poem to answer her title question.  Can you think of anything you might add to your own list of things that are black?