Dutch woman threads her illusionary cord
A mid wife spins a thread of Pontefract
That lies loosely upon her tongue
Her hands have delivered more
Young buds.
She rubs this thread not a superstition
But to understand her craft more
The hot seat for which she'd used
Was wide and bath like
Her hands carved labels
The dutch red head could be
Van Gogh's mother. Her green eyes
Made up for the blemished colours
Of the stalks flying in night sky
Her blue cuffs add to this
magical suspicion.
Van Gogh adds to these elements
With a Regal Red carpet.
This girl was an early celebrity
Culturally Gogh knew this
His art, his medium
Her soul and lineage.
She stares to the left
She covers her left hand
Flowers float up left
Pink hides behind
La Berceuse's women.
Women blanket
Umbilical hands
Ginger fringe
Youth delivered
Into the universe
She and he new.
A contest entry
- Berceuse by ea.
1000 points, ended July 7, 2008, 10 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/images/hb/hb_1996.435.jpg
Comments
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If this is a lullaby, I'm a Dutchman. And that's no fairytale. Only joking: well done with the research.
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Links op
Is the left turning in Dutch, Mnfrouw is Madame. I think this women is left handed, or maybe Van Gogh was left handed. Pontefract is liquorice in it's most tastiest format, maybe she's chewing on something else, but I bet her teeth a black, teehee. -
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ah, interesting. I guess Mnfrouw is like mein frau... she's actually rocking a cradle with that rope, I think. Dutch licorice is too bitter for me! Katzje.
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I'm happy to see you wrote on Van Gogh's painting, La Berceuse - I can get the "Left on" in the title but the name of the street (? Is it Dutch?) escapes me as does Pontefract. Intriguing write, especially the last two stanzas which begin to float away from the feeling of a docent's observations of the painting itself that earlier parts of the poem evoked in me.
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