Before Eternity's Gate

Before Eternity's gate



Is this what you saw? in the summer's eve
in a meadow beneath the starry night,
great flames with black eyes did you conceive,
armies of petals chrome yellow bright,
before your sad eyes a wonderful sight.
But your heart dwelled in the depths of hell,
kept in the shadows of a dark cold light,
slowly tormenting your young fragile shell,
is this what you saw? in the summers eve,
in Van Gogh's mind one can only believe.

Twelve sun flowers in an old vase sat still,
alive and vibrant to the modern eye,
picture of beauty from the window sill,
intense as the sun in the pale blue sky,
withered like a mind that will slowly die.
An artist so great you left us too soon,
a bedroom in Arles you humbly cry,
shining now in the madness of the moon,
Van Gogh in the flowers by the cool rill,
death by a gun on the crest of a hill.

Oh breath of flames from the earth you scream
to the eastern shores you stand and wait
for dawn's great yawn brings a life giving beam
in the meadows your dance makes hearts elate,
whispers in the wind of a sad man's fate.
Beneath the gazing of a great bright star
Van Gogh lies still before eternity's gate,
at peace his troubles now travel afar,
is this what you saw? in the summer's dream,
amongst the sun flowers your soul shall gleam.

                                                                    ( La tristesse durera toujour )

                                                                                                                                      spb.

Notes: For pond poetry. Prompt is the image and first thought.
          Form is the Decuain.
          The Decuain (pronounced deck•won), created by Shelley A. Cephas, is a short poem made up
          of 10 lines, which can be written on any subject. There are 10 syllables per line and the poem is
            written in iambic pentameter. There are 3 set choices of rhyme scheme: ababbcbcaa, ababbcbcbb, or ababbcbccc.
            I have chosen abbabbcbaa

          For a longer Decuain poem, add more stanzas for a double, triple, quatruple, etc. Decuain. (All stanzas must have the same rhyme scheme as the first.)