The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Van Gogh's Room, by Deborah DeNicola

2/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands). 1888.
Van Gogh’s Room

Everyone’s seen it. The wooden footboard
of the bed frame, slanted like the ceiling above

with the painting of a showgirl’s golden hair
and his own self-portrait hung from wires.

The little table with blue pitcher and cruets
for vinegar or turpentine, and the mirror

that reflects nothing back. Tabula rasa
in a black frame. No wonder he sliced his ear,

jangled by interruptive smudges, these tan chips
across the sea-green floor. Blue door, closed, walls

with fauvist colours, even the green windows
bleed to a jaundiced yellow and hold no view.

All his monkish possessions in one cell
as if he could step like Tarot’s Fool into colourless

air, dance off a mountain to a tune he alone hears.
I see him thinking in those wooden chairs. Their straw

seats, inverted Cezanne haystacks, snap my heartstrings.
No one Vincent knows is here to share the sunlight

of Arles. Gauguin’s already gone, burn out in the islands
with his Polynesian girls, draped in orange

and lime sarongs. He’ll lose a leg to gangrene,
dump Vincent completely, die leaving paintings

And a notebook, never knowing where we’re going,
Why we’re here, from whence we’ve come

Unlike Van Gogh who always knew.
Some never need to leave a room.

Deborah DeNicola

This poem was previously published in ​the book, Original Human, by Deborah DeNicola, from Wordtech Press.

Deborah DeNicola is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently, Original Human, 2010 from Word Tech, Where Divinity Begins from Alice James Books, four chapbooks, and her memoir,
The Future That Brought Her Here from NicholasHays 2009. She edited Orpheus & Company; Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology (UPNE.) An adjunct professor, and editor, DeNicola received The Carpe Articulum Award in 2010, Briar Cliff Poetry Award, 2007, the Santa Barbara Poetry Award, 2008 and The Paul Hoover Critical Essay Award from Packingtown Review, 2009. She is the recipient of an artist’s fellowship from the NEA. Her web site is www.intuitivegateways.com.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY
    This site uses cookies to deliver your best navigation experience this time and next. Continuing here means you consent to cookies. Thank you.
    Join us on Facebook:
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead