Van Gogh's Bedroom
        —Art Institute ef Chicago

Forget the filmed theories, written explications
of motives and compositions; lean
against the wall to take in the life-
sized rooms he longed
to share with Gauguin:
place of unshakeable
repose ... a poet's garden.
Yellow bed, thatched chair, Vincent's words
materializing, dissolving
on a wall of pale ochre.
Fauré's refrain plays
over and over in reverent air.
Close your eyes to sink
into that color he called
pale sulphur yellow, pale golden
yellow—how lovely yellow is! he wrote
to his brother Theo, even against pressing darkness:
There is a sun.

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Copyright © 2018 Andrea Potos All rights reserved
from Arrows of Light
Iris Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission