Monsieur Vincent–A Poem

This poem is in response to this past week’s  Monday Morning Writing Prompt. If you don’t know a lot about Vincent Van Gogh, I recommend Irving Stone‘s novel, “Lust for Life.” It is a beautiful novel about the artist and Irving Stone is known for his thorough research.

Monsieur Vincent,

are those your boots?

They speak of pain,

of hard work and tears,

of fruitless labor,

of loss and darkness.

Or did they belong

to the miner who died?

The one you served

in your early days?

Those days

of loss and darkness.

Monsieur Vincent,

why do you try?

Why do you see the world

 in blue and orange

when all you know

is loss and darkness?

Did you wear those

boots the day you

died, the day you

tried to end the pain

and failed to find even then

the end of loss and darkness.

Monsieur Vincent,

put them aside,

learn to dance, to sing,

to find the way to joy.

Your work speaks of beauty

and peace; it belies

a life of loss and darkness.

The world now knows

an artist who sought,

who longed to love

and be loved and who

gave of himself

in spite of loss and darkness.