• We are looking for you!
    Always wanted to join our Supporting Team? We are looking for enthusiastic moderators!
    Take a look at our recruitement page for more information and how you can apply:
    Apply

[Poetry] Cafe Terrace at Night

  • Thread starter DeletedUser3313
  • Start date

DeletedUser3313

It amuses me enormously to paint the night

right on the spot. Normally, one draws

and paints the painting during the daytime

after the sketch. But I like

to paint the thing immediately.


-Vincent Van Gogh
Cafe Terrace at Night



The painter remains removed out of scene

too far away to make out love or gender;



far enough away that only the orange glow

of a bustling cafe at night seems sure --



sure enough to make the sky almost blue

and the cobblestone violet and green -- the way oil might play with light --



& everything improves in the evening light of a cafe.



Van Gogh works off camera,

a lit cigarette



the ember of which makes like one of the stars

he would famously script.



He is able to step outside; to see himself as himself

& so



he paints at night to be sure of night

to let the shadows and light play games with him. And they do.



If someone loved him enough, they might make him step forward

but he remains alone, framing from the dark.



He is not mad but madness is coming

around the corner

and as clear as he can hear the hooves

of carriage horses or the distinct sound of a gun going off, far off

and further still, off stage.



But tonight he is beautiful. Hair wild with the most brilliant orange paint on his fingers.



Cast in the black sky he refuses to paint black, his eyes still electric,

he paints his scene as if blurred by tears



not enjoying the evening but drawing others with theirs.



He is all genius on the edge of a fall





defining everything bright and what little good.
 

DeletedUser2711

Brilliant. And your imagery is always so very cleverly done.
 
Top