Almond Blossom: A Response Poem

Van Gogh, Almond Blossom, Oil on Canvas, 73.5x92cm, 1890 (wiki.org)

Terribly dazed in head
Overwhelmed with grief
Struggling to go ahead
Stirred by the belief
Of beating this affliction.
Striving to be persistent,
While creating a depiction
Of a benevolent existent:

Branches of almond blossom
Thick and stable at the bottom
Thin and lively at each tip.
Swaying lightly as they dip
In and out of a vivid blue sky,
Meant to enthrall the infant’s eye.

Ill and dazed at the head
I look around me in dread,
“I must try to get out of here;”
But isn’t that what we often hear
Of artists accused to be mad?
Don’t grieve over me, but be glad,
For peace will come back to me,
Along with the blossoming tree.

With calm and a firmness of touch
I hold my brush and paint
With enthusiasm and of love so much
This painting I mean to acquaint
With the newly born Vincent,
As one feels present at a rebirth
While observing the reminiscent
Of antiquity, with much mirth,
Merged with crude modernity;
Filtered through the branches of the almond tree.