‘Soon the Fine Days Will Come’: January in Arles, 1889, by Caroline Collins

Peach Trees in Blossom, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands) 1888.

 
​‘Soon the Fine Days Will Come’:   January in Arles, 1889

“Soon the fine days will come
and I’ll start on the orchards in blossom
again,”  Vincent wrote Theo, as if tight buds
opening into bright flowers could solve
everything, as if he could live on that
gorgeous wedding of colour and light,
the frothy beauty filling the fields
enough to rouse the heart just one more time,
the snows of winter again left behind
as in his first year there, when he hungered
not for the fruit but the glorious blooms
of peaches and pears, apricots and almonds,
painting the delicate petals as they fell
and he fell so hard for them all,
over and over again.

Caroline Collins

​Caroline Collins, formerly known as the hula hoop champion of Scotty’s roller rink, lives in Georgia, where she teaches writing. Her book of poetry, Presences, was published by Parallel Press in 2014. Recent poems on blues music appear in Arkansas Review and Big Muddy. Her poem “Van Gogh’s Night Horse” (based on his “Terrace of a Café at Night”), is forthcoming in Blue Heron Review.