Seeing Light

by Taylor Smith

Oh, how you shine 

your glorious light 

which radiates down on mine. 

The everlasting night

doth appear the divine 

and the town is ignited. 

The cobalt, and amber swooshes

Shine every which way, is quite

the beauty to see. The designs 

Your creator birthed is a satisfied 

Preached. The sign 

Of view, at midnight 

Does help me see. 

What is it that defines 

Who you are, or the guide 

You embark to align 

Our perception? It’s a stride, 

That we intertwine, 

With our thoughts, a right 

To understand the heart. 

Or mind. The confined 

struggles we can’t see, 

Yet, plead your bright 

To come to; show the debris

Of the moonless dim

 Which, now appears

 in a helpful light. 

Above, the town I see,

Little peaks of family homes, the night

Seems peacefully free. 

Response:

Starry Night, is a captivating portrait of a vision that Van Gogh, himself expressed when it was going through. I chose to execute the importance of the vision itself, trying to explore the reminisce that he might have saw, or felt when he looked at the sky. I chose to really hone into the sky, with the swooshes the the painting techniques; trying to stay in this higher level of understanding. The message of the portrait is to inquire the mental health struggles the Gogh had experienced, and I think this piece is certainly one of interesting depiction of that. So, I tried to explore the meaning of the piece but asking the question why does this symbolize importance. All of the stanzas don’t have end-stops except for the very first one. I did that intentionally, one, because I wanted to add emphasis on the sky, and the lights that is exposed. I didn’t have any end-stops in the rest because I wanted to try and follow along the imagery of the portrait as we see in the swoosh structure of the “breeze,” or the air in the sky. Adding the fluidity in the structure kind of, hopefully, explores the fluidity in the thoughts, and the form of nature especially in what is captured in the piece. There were a couple words that I wanted to try and have stand out in the piece, some of those being, “moonless,” “confined struggles,” “intertwine,” and so on. Yet, this piece captivates many multitudes of mental health, nature, and perception of life and using the portrait helped me not only in-tune the perspective of the artist but also active the purpose of the image.