Poem of the week: Colored Hats by Gertrude Stein

Some think of Stein’s poetry as a literary version of cubism, but her embrace of ordinary objects here seems more radical – and more mysterious, writes Carol Rumens

Colored Hats
Colored hats are necessary to show that curls are worn by an addition of blank spaces, this makes the difference between single lines and broad stomachs, the least thing is lightening, the least thing means a little flower and a big delay a big delay that makes more nurses than little women really little women. So clean is a light that nearly all of it shows pearls and little ways. A large hat is tall and me and all custard whole.

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