Recipes for Red (from Such Rich Hour)

ardor and pestle
igneous anchor
sucked from the iron
and flaming just a little on parchment is the fevered
                            skin of animal: this

             was made to proof
             was boiled to world
             and powdered, pounded,
             chained. (Shaved with a shard of glass the great
blocks of brazil
                          (colorus flammeus) from the forests of Ceylon
and from there by sea to Alexandria in great quantity (‘brazil’
   from ‘brazier’ from
‘bright waiting’ stains the hands and they say the taste is slight-
   ly sweet.

While some of the most brilliant
were extracted from insects (the coccus ilicis as it dies upon the branch)

kermes from the Arabic made Latin kermesinum made Italian
  cremesino, cramoisie in French and a brilliant crimson
  & wakeful state
             marginal conflagration
                        largely developed for the Florentine wool-
   trade.
He said:
How to make mercury from cinnabar through deprivation:

(and the marrying of mercury to sulphur
               and the heritage of vermillion:

     Oh minium ("to miniate") red sulphide of mercury

and miltos and cinabrum, sandaracca, orange tetroxide of lead called

a simple procedure: mix the mercury with the sulphur, stir
          twice, sneeze once and heat the remainder.
Quicksilver and mortar.
Monsieur, will you do me the honor; take the blood from this faucet
and make from it a pair of gloves.