Van Gogh

Vincent Exercising (1890)

 

I see myself:

I follow the man in front,

am followed by the man behind,

circling like the hands of a clock,

from midnight to noon,

noon until midnight.

The brick walls reach up heavenwards

and I cannot see a door.

 

But I will walk free -

in the room where rhythms are all my own

and the sunflowers glow

having swallowed the sun

in field after field -

on wall after wall after wall.

 

 

(Poem from my newest collection, Come Close and Listen,

published by Greenwich Exchange)