This is better than yours...
Poem for Hiroshige and Van Gogh
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/jerrick/image/upload/d_642250b563292b35f27461a7.png,f_jpg,fl_progressive,q_auto,w_1024/647e0d95c77296001de92950.jpg)
1.
Comparison:
Van Gogh makes me think of
all the drugs I forgot to take
(wonder what he would have done
under the right prescription).
Hiroshige would be most displeased
to see the slip, glow, burn and leak.
Another gaijin, like a madman,
working within an orange frame
made out of some sort of drunk love
for what the Japanese master could not see.
2.
A Complaint and a Response:
“A reference to the image an(d) Van Gogh’s translation of it seems called for,
somewhere within the poem” (Professor's comments)
- In my notes:
Hiroshige (Japanese artist) working in the ukiyo-e style – very spare, full of grey
expanses, tufts of grass and, in the background, figures gathered for a day at the
park. Kimonos and shaved heads. No one in the foreground. Frame: grey
(painted wood)
Van Gogh, whose own perception of the work was formed by his sense of the
unending storm that is Nature. Everything looks fresh, still wet to the touch. I
called the sky “harsh”, the grass “soupy” and noted, as seen in Hiroshige’s work,
the central foregrounded tree branch, here now burnt brown-black, bent like a
flexed muscle. People seem even farther away than in the Hiroshige piece
3.
Unheard Dialogue:
“Don’t climb the trees,” her mother said. “You have to eat later and you will mess up your clothes.”
She didn’t listen, and played with the boys who went right up into the highest branches, scratching their arms, scraping their knees.
She made it to one of the highest limbs, on a dare.
And she could see the bridge...
Later, when two gentlemen nearby by wanted to know what it was like up there,
she giggled, thinking that they were afraid of heights, and ran back to her parents
(they told her not to talk to strangers), dreaming of the sky,
thinking of her branch.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/jerrick/image/upload/d_642250b563292b35f27461a7.png,f_jpg,q_auto,w_720/647e12aec77296001de9295e.png)
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/jerrick/image/upload/d_642250b563292b35f27461a7.png,f_jpg,q_auto,w_720/647e12aec77296001de9295f.png)
*
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About the Creator
Kendall Defoe
Teacher, reader, writer, dreamer... I am a college instructor who cannot stop letting his thoughts end up on the page.
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Comments (7)
Poetry is my first love of writing, and I am excited to read a piece that drags me in to read time and time again! Thank you for this. Keep at it!
Fascinating.
Yeah, not sure what Van Gogh was thinking there. On the other hand, if he'd ever made it to Japan, he'd have likely considered cutting off the other ear on a hot summer day, the cicada cacophony!
This is so good! Bravo! That opening line really just grabs and pulls you right through this. Well done.
Oooo, this was so creative and fascinating!
KD ~ While living in Japan for a year I was fascinated with The Art of 'Sand Painting' - But, I'm a Starry Starry Night Fan all of the way - Thank you for this lovely piece - Jay
Van Gogh was a bit nuts. I would have like him a lot. Eccentric and in a world of his own, Perfect. Very interesting story. Never heard of the other guy though. Must check him out.