What of Van Gogh?

What did Van Gogh know that

others could not perceive?

In the starry sky or acid greens

on olive branches or iris grounds,

did he see clearly the unseen?

What refuge did he find in

Asylum

While he painted

While he painted

While he painted?

Cloistered from the "sane,"

Protected from their banal

normal-ness – is that what

propelled his sublime visions?

Fumbling in the illusion of "reality,"

did he retreat to more sure ground –

to the steadiness of inner –

but found it too incompatible to span?

Then Retreat.

How?

6.16.2010 MAV