Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sunday Morning Poetry


The couple in Van Gogh's blue wood is walking
where the is no path, amid tall, 
seemingly branchless blue and pink trees.  The tree crowns
are beyond the frame, reaching up into our mind's eye
because we know where trees go and that they are full
of wind and a thousand softly stirring
machines that are alive.  Equally out of sight, for
nests of intricately woven strength and fragility hang
like proofs that there are no diagrams or maps
for life's most important journeys.  The horizon
at the couple's back, between the trees, is black. 
They walk toward light.  Crowds of waist-high flowers, 
on thick-leaved stalks, sing in stout slurries of pink and white. 

The couple cannot think of anything good

ever coming from anger, so they are more happy than not. 
That could be true.  Maybe I want it to be
true of me, of us.  And like us, they may have worn paths
to the most forest-deep secrets in each other's lives.
Or perhaps they are only now on their way to the place
where they will become lovers, the excitement of their flesh
through their clothes singing, making them careless, 
giddy, and light as birds in flight.  

Of course, we can't know any of this.  Perhaps, even Van Gogh

didn't know anything about them: so many unseen possibilities
lived in a blue wood, so like ours. 
~ Richard Levine 

Painting by Vincent Van Gogh, of course. 

11 comments:

Jeanne said...

Happy Sunday morning to you and I love all of your postings.
Love and blessings ^j^ Jeanne♥

rachel awes said...

this speaks to me, friend.
saying hello to you
from this wooded place.
xox

Claire said...

Lovely as ever, sweet girl. I hope your Sunday is wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for that, Relyn - both the poem and the painting it muses on.

Tracy said...

This one was new to me, so glad to have encountered this poem today. Thank you for your poetry days, Relyn! :o) ((HUGS))

Amy said...

Ah, I love it!

troutbirder said...

Fascinating smorgasboard of topics and photos. Thanks for sharing...:)

Marion Williams-Bennett said...

Van Gogh's paintings are always so full of energy that they evoke such powerful wondering! I love these lines

And like us, they may have worn paths
to the most forest-deep secrets in each other's lives.
Or perhaps they are only now on their way to the place
where they will become lovers

and that both possibilities exist!

Thank you for sharing!

Marilyn Miller said...

Yes, make it true! Lovers walking in the woods.

Jennifer Richardson said...

i love the mystery
....am making peace
with the not knowing:)
-Jennifer

Kirsten Steen said...

Beautiful this, Relyn! And did you see the 60 Minutes segment about the new(ish) book on the death of Van Gogh most likely not being by his own hand? Very interesting! Hope all is well with you and school is going smoothly. xoxo, Kirsten

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