Van Gogh =============================== Roses are red, violets are blue Hidden in stipples of paint that you Dabbed on your canvas, yellowed with age In watery colors, storms that rage Forceful winds, tempests and gales Feelings and thoughts, laments and tales Your talent, amazing, powerful, strong Melted the colors, stained them along Strokes of charcoal, black over white Turned into vibrant scenes of delight Canvas that told of barmy nights Of days that were sheathed in golden lights And then they besieged you, demons of time Your liquid poetry, stronger than rhyme Cast all those luscious fields of wheat As fallow lands baked in the afternoon heat Burned on canvas, etched in pain Angry strokes tell, again and again Stories of struggle, your battles of will Through all that anarchy, beautiful still Now all those years, all agony past They hold your soul, quietened at last I try to mellow my senses to see The world that you saw, as it would be If they could have taken your sorrow away Lightened your burdens, brightened your day And then they are different, the colors I see The stories they tell, their quiet harmony A palette of paint, with watery sheens Turned into wonderful, majestic scenes A knoll of dry grass, an olive tree Ordinary people, like you and me Walking by rivers, banks and styles Sitting on benches, with frowns and smiles Strips of meadows, luscious and green Fields and fences, squares in between Rows of Poplars, Birches and Oaks Painted on canvas in tartan strokes And yet again, comes seeping all through The pall that lingered and haunted you Somewhere within those scenes painted bright Are trembling ripples and frissions of fright Ribbons of paint, twisted in knots Criss-crossing broken up pieces of thoughts Beautiful forms veiled in drapes Sabers and daggers piercing their shapes Slashes and swirls and patterns evoke Blazes of pain in every stroke Powdery plains, painted in green Leisurely breezes, soft and serene Burst into storms, furious, awry Menacing clouds smeared on the sky Flames of loneliness, fires that yearn Spread over windswept grasses that burn Blaze over fields, bundles of hay The burning corn, bent in dismay Tries to battle the fences in vain Flashes of lightning, thunder and rain The Poplars and Firs, Birches and Oaks Hazed and smeared in angry strokes Broken up thoughts, a mind in turmoil Come through in angry colors on soil Olive trees wilt on harsh burning days Relentless and cruel, stark and ablaze All your dreams crumbled to sand Written on canvas in masterful hand If I could walk the sands of time I'd steady those hands, soak up in rhyme All the pain, so what would remain Your joy on canvas for ever again ===================== 14 Feb 2018 -- Rita Singh LTI, SCS, and ECE (by courtesy), Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rsingh