These Purple Years

A long while ago I heard of an old Japanese tradition which associates the colour purple with the seventies and endorses it as appropriate for wearing by people in that venerable age group. Then when I turned seventy I joined the Red Hat Society founded in the USA in 1997 as the place where there is fun over fifty. This society takes for its motto so to speak a poem called Warning by the UK poet Jenny Joseph (1932-). The first verse of Warning begins thus: When I am an old woman I shall wear purpleWith a red hat which doesnt go and doesnt suit me.And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer glovesAnd satin sandals and say weve no money for butter.I shall sit down on the pavement when Im tired... And make up for the sobriety of my youth!A nice synchronicity between East and West isnt it? Loving the colour purple I quite often wear it not just to Red Hat Society functions. I was born in 1941 and most of the tanka in this book have been written and published during my purple years.