Continuing on the theme of 19th century masters (an earlier post this week featured Paul Cézanne) here’s a poem by Irish poet Derek Mahon (whose work was featured previously here) about Vincent Van Gogh:
A Portrait of the Artist
(for Colin Middleton)
Shivering in the darkness
Of pits, slag-heaps, beetroot fields,
I gasp for light and life
Like a caged bird in spring-time
Banging the bright bars.
Like a glow-worm I move among
The caged Belgian miners,
And the light on my forehead
Is the dying light of faith.
God gutters down to metaphor—
A subterranean tapping, light
Refracted in a glass of beer
As if through a church window,
Or a basin ringed with coal-dust
After the ritual evening bath.
Theo, I am discharged for being
Over-zealous, they call it,
And not dressing the part,
In time I shall go south
And paint what I have seen—
A meteor of golden light
On chairs, face and old boots,
Setting fierce fire to the eyes
Of sun-flowers and fishing boats,
Each one a miner in disguise.
What a wonderful poem! I’ve been in the Welsh countryside where miners work and I’ve been deep inside a gold mine in South Africa. The evocation is right on. Such a great line: “God gutters down to metaphor. . . ” And that ending “Each one a miner in disguise.” I have to go look up this poet. I’m hooked.
I found out about his work quite by accident and immediately found a book of his poems to buy online. I’m stunned by him too. I am so pleased that we agree on this!