Thursday, August 20, 2020

Tree Roots (Van Gogh), Sonnet #526












For years we thought Vincent Van Gogh’s
Last painting was “Wheatfield with Crows,”
With its dirt road lost among rows
Of autumn grain that wave and glow,
Crows flying wild, a beckoning
Toward dark skies and reckoning.
And now? These gnarled tree roots, exposed
By wind and rain, gripping the soil,
Image of the ageless, unposed,
Riotous like his mental moil.
His vision turned to the abstract,
The canvas stabbed with daubs or smears,
As though more paint would reveal fears
Clutched inside against his final act.

Note: For many years, Wheatfield with Crows
was considered his final painting. Recent
discoveries have indicated that Tree Roots
was in fact his last work. Though there are 
competing theories, the Van Gogh Museum 
in Amsterdam's official conclusion is that 
the painter committed suicide with a pistol
soon after completing Tree Roots.


My book of the first 200 of these sonnets is now available for purchase. Click here: