E. Mary Wilce
To The Turf-Cutters Of Drenthe (August 1888)
You should see this place.
They call it Arles.
The colours are like fire, burning;
even at night there is a glow of heat.
And sunflowers, huge fields of them,
thousands, millions,
turning their faces secretly
from east to west, worshipping.
My face fits here.
I am Vincent now, alive,
with no small grave to visit,
only in my dreams.
My step is lighter.
I wear a straw hat to keep
my head from burning.
I ache with so much splendour:
yellow, orange, bright wine-red
spiralling into an extravagant harmony.
Black and brown are redundant to my palette.
I hack at my canvas,
bold strokes, growing, moving,
dragging me through endless nightmares.
I walk through the shadows to cool my thoughts.
I wonder if you would recognise me,
if we should pass.
People stand tall here;
no backs stooped in dark labour.
Your bones would straighten;
but your heads would burn with all this light.
Day after day, month after month,
the sun burns.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The