Wind-Chimes

CHEVREFEUILLES

http://chevrefeuilleshaikublog.blogspot.com.au/

5/7/5

WIND-CHIMES

(A haiku)

Capturing the wind

Making music with the breeze

Metallic bird-song

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Van Gogh

PERFECTION?

A perfect human-being could not have painted this.

Good health and eyesight would have made things bland;

Only Van Gogh's imperfections caused this brilliant view,

The brain imparting colour to the hand.

He was affected doubly, by digitalis and lead;

It is thought that these two poisons made him see

A world of sunflower yellowness, of circles and of swirls,

Unlike our world of dull conformity.

Lead-based paints were culprits; they made the retina swell,

So that he saw distortions everywhere;

He took digitalis for epilepsy, from the foxglove plant;

This caused him to see yellow in the air.

We admire Van Gogh for perfection; his view of the world is revered.

So if modern medicine leads to health perfection,

Will 'perfect' works of art become the exception, not the rule?

Are we moving in a healthy, but dull, direction?

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