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After Van Gogh’s “The Poet’s Garden” 1888
The Hyacinth Review
The Hyacinth Review

After Van Gogh’s “The Poet’s Garden” 1888

by
April 29, 2022
Impressionist painting of a garden full of trees with a yellow sky
The Poet's Garden I, Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Cynthia Gallaher, a Chicago-based poet and visual artist, is author…

Impressionist painting of a garden full of trees with a yellow sky
The Poet’s Garden I, Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Van Gogh consumed the citron sky
waiting for Gauguin.

And along with cedar, willow, oleander,
fir, cypress and distant blue belfry,

fell off the edge of summer
into Arles’ tinged autumn.

Did the artist run and lie face down
in soft grass, tree trunks telling him

What he always knew, but telling it slant?
Did he whirl into the vortex

Of windblown blushing leaves,
become tongue-tied to relay

The secrets he learned?
Was the garden unaware its changing nature

heaped greater passion on the Dutchman’s palette,
would serve as solitude and be his refuge

until the new Petrarch arrived?

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Cynthia Gallaher, a Chicago-based poet and visual artist, is author of four poetry collections, many with themes, including Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs and Spices, and three chapbooks, including Drenched. Her nonfiction/memoir/creativity guide Frugal Poets’ Guide to Life: How to Live a Poetic Life, Even If You Aren’t a Poet won a National Indie Excellence Award. Follow her on Twitter at @swimmerpoet, Instagram at @frugalpoet and her Facebook page at @frugalpoets. Amazon Author Page: http://bit.ly/gallaherc Website: http://bit.ly/cynthiagallaher

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