Poetry Thursday. Another Self

Poetry Thursday this week offers us the chance to be someone else. I'm not sure I agree with the assumption that poetry should always speak of the poet's personal experience and life. - Much poetry is written out of a persona which the poet adopts, even if it is prompted by some personal experience. A poem (is this a hobby-horse of mine? Did I say something similar when we wrote about Confessional Poetry?) can be authentic without necessarily being TRUE. One of my favourite quotes from Natalie Goldberg is "You are not your poem". I hold to this.

My offering this week, however, comes out of another life entirely. I have a fascination with Van Gogh - his work, his writings, his life. But I don't imagine he would have been an easy man to live with! Sien - who was model for these two paintings, did live with him, and the poem is my reflection on how that might have been.


..........SIEN’S LAMENT

.............That impossible man
.............goes out, and I am hoping
.............there will be a little ham,
.............some coffee, soft bread
.............for the few guilders
.............that came in the post.

.............His haul, when he returns,
.............dumped triumphantly
.............on the kitchen table:
.............tubes of ochre, cobalt
.............and Prussian blue,
.............Naples yellow,
.............terra sienna, ultramarine,
.............gamboges;
.............a roll of canvas.

.............From the corner
.............my baby’s cry rises,
.............and I wail Vincent,
.............who can eat a painting?

There will be other Poetry Thursday offerings HERE

If you would like to pay your respects at W.B. Yeats' grave, I've posted pictures from a recent visit HERE