Love's most beautiful
His drawings first were monochrome
In pen and ink, etched or pencil sketch
The drab and watered winter land
Barren fields and figures
Strong and bent
Until one technicolour day
Like Dorothy on yellow road
The rainbow arc unfurled
Kaleidoscopic magic, colours on a wheel
From palette fiercely flung
Vibrant into life
His vision of eternity
Glimpsed in prussian cypress swirls
Against a turquoise sky
Two shiny orange crabs on green
Flowers of the field exuberantly crammed
Daisies poppies cornflowers
Crowding in a jug
And blousy blooming roses
White on green and pink
The hot south full summer
Corn in waves or stacked in sheaves
Workers ever toiling over scythes
Each day of his last seventy
From palette fiercely flung,
New begun,
A glorious canvas, soul of landscape captured
For posterity
The genius and the struggle
Too great for human heart,
Art transcending, elevating
Sunflower heads and starry nights
Left to us his vision blessed
From Vincent
Love's most beautiful bequest
19th April 2010, Bondi, for Pam, Jude and Rosie, happy memories
I knew as I was reading it that it was about Van Gogh, very lovely words that paint more than one picture.
ReplyDeleteLast week, Gill, Jude Pam, daughter Rosie and I queued for 4 hrs to see a wonderful exhibition of Van Gogh's paintings and letters to his brother Theo, at the Royal Academy. What a fabulous collection of his work and some very interesting insights into his life and the man he was. He literally painted 71 paintings in his last 71 days!
ReplyDeleteA lovely tribute to one of my favourite artists. Identification certain with "prussian cypress swirls" - lovely - just conjured up that unforgettable painting, which I love so much. After that, I read with increasing pleasure. Thank you - I'm so glad you enjoyed the exhibition.
ReplyDeleteJust lovely Sally. A great memory of a special day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Pam, it was a great day. I learnt so much the way the exhibition was organised around the autobiography of his letters. Your poem captures just what I saw. From palette fiercely flung, what a sense of this looking at his work towards the end, I felt an absolute sense of relief looking at the 'ears of wheat' in the last room where I became grounded again, as with his beautiful blossom trees.
ReplyDeleteI think you should send that poem in to the exhibition, its very inspiring!
ReplyDelete