Long Arles Poems

Endless sunflower field 
Rhythmically swaying in the wind
Like lazy ocean wave stretches 
To the distant line of horizon
Touching the edge of the sky
Melting into hot noon brilliance
Boiling all shades of yellow into
One burning brightness of...

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Fishing Boats On The Beach at Les Saintes - Marie’s-de-la-Mer

                  Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1888), Arles, June...

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Take me to the tombstone 
let me touch the gray stone that stands
where life could not
I will put my face to that touchstone of deaf thunder,
What happened  to your breath baby brother,
what happened in...

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A child was born, suffering “excess de zele” behavior
Depression and schizophrenia were his all time plague.
First actions of adult life expressed his love for the Savior.
His passion for humanity and God were never vague.
With the...

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To the proud parents, Anna and Theo
A serious lad, silent and thorough
A clan of preachers
And dealers of art
From the southern Netherlands came Van Gogh

When sent to school, he did not want to go
The separation led...

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Decades of a formula that only he knew about it and drew,
Cascades of his artwork came to a head in his last years,
Glissades of a swan in a lake that only a handful had seen,
Tirades...

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I am misunderstood. I am an artist.
               I work with my heart through my hands;
      ...

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yogi under the banyan tree
                yogi under the bodhi tree
          ...

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The trenches are dug,
We gotta go, guys,
Defend our country,
On the other side of the Rhine,
They don’t speak French,
On the other side of the Rhine,
They don’t speak German,
Sprechen Sie Deutsch ?

We gotta go, guys,
To die for...

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Van Gogh's Yellow House

On the corner of a cobblestone street, a yellow house stands,
and nearby, a bistro to eat in, and a café where friends meet,
are illuminated by a sulfur sun under a cobalt sky.

A...

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Van Gogh's Severed Ear

I leaf through memories as if pages in my mind,
And I can’t find the one I’m searching for.
Like a distraught painter much maligned,
I can’t find the reason to live for anymore.

Inside my...

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20th February 1888, he left as snow fell in Paris,
seeking warmth, bright light and colour.
Provence beckoned, Arles awaited.
Cold welcome soon turned warm, Vincent keen to explore,
keen to advance painting style,
bold colours, dynamic brush strokes.
May day...

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It’s fall of 1888, the south of France,
In the verdant fields of Arles,
Two artists shared a single dream,
And so began their quarrel.
Vincent paved the way for Paul
With bold sunflower sprays.
Paul dissembled, stating plain,
“More practiced effort...

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Vincent Willhelm van Gogh
a difficult talent to truly know
unwise love choices-Eugenie Kee&Sien
made him stick to brush not pen

Finance support from brother Theo
loosed his giftings to flow
in dark landscapes&still life
too bad,  without a  wife

From Ecole de Beau Arts a matric
In Antwerp he creates his pics
Then to Paris to mix with the best
lived an artist  life with great zest

Upon the death of Pa Theodorus
Vincent does portraits&busts
as his love life to Margot ails
so also his pointillism fails

He then met Agostina Segatori
& a brief affair the world did see
An interest in all things Japanaise
then to Arles were the sun does blaze

The artists colony  was not a success
Vincent cut off an -ear-but I digress
progressively VG became deluded
'a mad redhead,'the locals said

Genius & delusion marries as one
but a recognisable usp is done
with broad brush& wavy line
a reputation to outlast his time

In Arles he is hospitalised
&unique art realised-
then with a gun suicides
on canvas though his genius resides...

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His life came to a ruinous end
Plummeted into insanity
The red-bearded painter 
With his self-hatred, despair and desperation for understanding
He drank yellow paint thinking it would make him happy 
Locked up in a mental asylum that...

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Dear Buddha
It’s been a while I know
I do apologise
But stuff gets in the way
These silly complications
Books to read
And CNN
But I’m here now
And so are you
So set in stone
And pond-side contemplation
I’m sure you understand
You always do
So...

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effervescent swirling clouds
in turquoise summer skies
float like flocks of fair sheeps
in far away exuberant fields

beneath are cyclopean cypresses
touching celestial bosom
in deep periwinkle and corn flower
whilst  wheat fields
are golden fleece
waltzing with the west wind

oh, how...

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Café Terrace (Coffee House) In Arles, France

Beneath stars of heavenly grandeur,
In a café, romance prospects dwell brighter.
Patrons entertaining escapades of camaraderie,
Charismatically whisper away the evening.

Visible under the illuminating gas lantern,
Of sulphurous yellow revealing customers
Who say,...

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dainty darling blossoms~ 
are floating fluffy clouds 
of ivory and  petunia
hanging like empyrean jewels 
'neath the vibrant skies 
of turquoise and royal blue

fingers that wrinkled in snow
tightly holding those gems ~
like you hold my hands
as...

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The elemental powers,
Of natural scenes to paint.
Combined with intangible drama,
In a time so far and quaint.

Below the hills of Arles,
All the landscapes thrive.
The hands of Vincent Van Gogh,
Painted them alive.

Enveloped by harmony of things,
While he...

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Armed with his arsenal of paints,
He attacks the evening canvas.
Deploying his creative genius,
Freeing his brilliant thoughts,
While releasing his passionate soul.
·
Swirls explode into existence,
While battling with his loneliness.
He conquers his muse of sunflowers,
Under the Arles...analogous sky,
At...

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