"The Blues" WEP Challenge February 2020

The ancients spoke of artists having a spirit of Genius. This is what we experience, waiting for the genius to come, from without... When we think we are the genius, normal living becomes difficult.
Vincent Van Gogh's picture Café Terrace at Night was painted at the age of 35, just two years before his death. One can only imagine what mental state he was in as he escaped into his world of colour. Fabulous.

  Vincent coughed into the 

        night. Delighted at the play

    of candlelight and shadows on 

        his beloved Café. The

    people moving, laughing, talking, living. 

    

    Yellow for the jealousy at their

        peaceful existence, his resistance     

    weakens, dragging him back to morbidity,

        lucidity escaping out of 

    every pore as sweat.

   

    And yet he perseveres.

        Tears now streaming. Feeling

    like screaming,

        he adds the blues, oh the blues, and the 

    night, the shadows, the lights,

        the stars, always the stars. 

    Staring now at the 

        picture, he smiles.

   "Many miles I have come"

        he thinks, "to

    paint this scene. It may

       not mean I'm a genius, but 

    it is bloody good!"

    And so, he decides 

        not to scribble his name but  

    to thank his God for 

        another shot at 

    chasing away the demons.

   Carole Stolz © 2020

  Word count 125 : FCA