Starry Night, by Ekaterina Dukas

Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands) 1889

Starry Night
 
It’s last call:
Vincent brushes the hills tresses,
blows out the village candles,
appoints the night watch –
a tough cypress comrade,                 
and only then aims for the stars.
 
His brush swirls in the thick of night
- a thief’s key in a prison lock
to unchain the celestial sea.
Blazing blue and liquid gold  
sea gods lunging headlong –
claws keen, tails mean,
they gulp down the nocturnal mesh  
and splash trying to reach  
Vincent’s shore.
 
A honeyed moon leads the tune
and holds this enterprise together
though its tides shift as we speak
we can see stars breathe
the night watch is fast asleep. 
                                                                                                     
Ekaterina Dukas

Ekaterina Dukas lives in London. A graduate in Philology and Philosophy, she is interested in the history of arts, ideas, culture and universalism, going back to Sanskrit sources. Considering poetry as human’s alter ego, she is an avid explorer of the metrical word. Former educationist, she is now a volunteer at the V&A Museum; and at the British Museum for the interactive program Hands On. Her creative acumen is attested in the authorship of the British Library publication The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, listed by questia digital library at position 9 in one of their periodical selections 16 of the best publications on illuminated manuscripts.