Life is suffering,
Every day a struggle,
Tormented from within and without
Compulsed to share visions
No one else can see,
To paint portraits of a turbulent world
Through the lens of a turbulent mind
On a luminescent night in Provence
Shimmering Venus and Ares framed
By the Asylum window,
An ecstatic celebration of life,
Ever moving; never resting,
Using pigments of agony, anguish and madness,
Transmuting lead into gold,
Depression into sunflowers,
Tragedy into beauty,
Brief breath of life into immortality.

3/30/17 (Vincent’s 164th Birthday)

Pictures

• Self-Portrait with Straw Hat (Paris, Winter 1887/88) by Vincent van Gogh
• The Starry Night (Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 1889) by Vincent van Gogh