His paint oozed solitude and sadness.
The turbulent brush almost fell
from his hands. He knew it so well,
this field of rude life and death,
its diverging blood-rusted paths
leading to the same horizon.
The violent polarity of yellow field
of wheat daubed in rows
and blue sky smudged with clouds
erupts with black marks of crows,
harbingers and bearers of his goodbye.
Caged by fits of melancholy,
with nowhere to go and no escape,
the wing-clipped artist had to fly.
Kim M. Russell, 25th August 2020
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Waiting on Wheat
This Tuesday our guest host is Rosemarie, who brings us a quotation from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and poems by Pablo Neruda.
Rosemarie says that, living alone in her cream-box-of-a-home for more than four months now, she has had time to read poetry and has grown very fond of Pablo Neruda and his rich use of the word ‘wheat’.
Today, we are writing about wheat and we can even borrow some lines from Neruda and paint them with our own colours. My inspiration came from Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Wheatfield with Crows’, probably his last painting before his suicide, and the form I have chosen is an irregular sonnet.
Kim, a beautiful form that captures the artists pain so well. The last stanza tears me up. If only there were a time machine to go back and rescue him before that tragic end that didn’t need to be 😦
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Thank you, Lisa! I don’t know if anyone could have rescued him. As I said elsewhere, I think his paintings were messages, cries for help, that no one understood.
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You’re welcome and you may be right.
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You’re right, there is a polarity about that painting, and the crows seem to darken even the gold of the wheat. Unsettling.
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They think it was his last painting, particularly as that was where he shot himself. I wonder if his paintings were cries for help. Apparently, he felt he was a burden on his brother, Theo, who was having a difficult time himself.
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To have been a painter of his talent and never managed to sell a single canvas. I’m surprised he lasted so long really.
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Van Gogh must have been obsessed with wheat fields, but I have never seen any so dark with those crows… really foreboding. I used one of his painting as well, and went for a sonnet… but the result was a bit different.
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Luckily, the high wind hasn’t affected the power here yet, so I will be over to read yours in a bit. I look forward to it.
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Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I see dark imagery in this poem with the ending as it will always will be for Van Gough: tragedy and death. It is sad, but so beautifully composed. Another amazing poem of yours!
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Thank you so much, Lucy”
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Exquisite Kim. I went straight to the poem without seeing the title and new it was Van Gogh. You captured it beautifully and the last line was amazing. ☺️💕
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Thank you so much, Christine.
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Very creative to use some Van Gogh wheat for the prompt. As tragic as his life was, his art makes up for it; though he never knew success. It’s one of the great dramas in art history.
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Thanks Glenn. Did you see the film a few years ago? I’ve been fascinated with his art and life since I was a teenager.
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Such darkness from your muse with:
black marks of crows,
harbingers and bearers of his goodbye.
Love how you painted with words to match Gogh’s last painting. I can feel the moody & melancholy voice from this painting.
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Thank you, Grace. Along with Klimt, Schiele and Hundertwasser, van Gogh is one of my favourite artists.
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This is just excellent, Kim. I particularly like the balancing of crows, wing-clipped and flying. Very well done.
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Thank you, Sarah. Did you enjoy your holiday?
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Feels like a looooonnnnggg time ago!
I’m having problems reading comments on WordPress at the moment, it’s very frustrating.
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You so beautifully capture what must have been the emotion of Van Gogh when he painted the crows in the wheat. Bravo, my friend.
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Thank you so much for your appreciation, Bev.
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Such beauty, such sadness.
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Thank you, Mary.
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I can feel the artist’s pain both in your poem and in the painting. It is such an excellent description of Van Gogh’s tortured final days. I always find so much to move me in his paintings, more so than almost any other artist. A fitting tribute.
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Thank you kindly, Ingrid.
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an insightful depiction of Van Gogh’s troubled mind as he painted out his turmoil …
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Thanks Kate!
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I’ve always loved that painting, and how lovely that you’ve added a voice to it.
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Cheers Misky.
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you captured the polarity of the painter so nicely. that despite the gold of harvest lingers the darkness of death. a profound take.
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Thank you!
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I can see those “harbingers and bearers of his godbye.” Wonderful.
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Thank you, Sherry.
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Wow. Fantastic, creative, insightful…I love this.
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Thank you!
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You had me with that first line. Without looking at the painting I knew exactly what you were describing. Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists and his many paintings of wheat are seared in my mind. The ones I think of are the numerous ones of the same wheat “stack” — but this one is a favorite. The words “caged by fits of melancholy” are especially illustrative of the artist’s own melancholy. Just an excellent description of this painting. I forget the poetic name for this type of poetry — where you actually describe a painting? You’ve done it so very well, Kim!
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Thank you, Lill! It’s ekphrastic poetry, which I enjoy writing, and why I submit every month to Visual Verse. I have a poem in the Ephrastic Review tomorrow. 😊
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