photo©Alan Summers 2019 |
Van Gogh’s combat fatigues
The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain,Tate Britain 2019
the man who isn’t
with anyone
stops alongside
different people
choosing them
over the paintings
he has birds
in his arms
and loose locks
of hair made from thought
there are small lives
within the frames of paintings
having candlelit dinners
and the last door
out of the exhibition
will begin to sound
like a trombone
taking leave
of someone
we hear the chatter
between airlocks
it’s news of a hundred
and two decades old
as the hours close
in on themselves
the trombone reflects
on Louis Armstrong
talking to Vincent
backend rain…
a pair of canvas boots
framed by the door
haibun©Alan Summers
Publication credit:
Weird Laburnum ed. Michael O’Brien (August 2019)
Note:
Published on the morning of the last day of the exhibition with thanks to editor Michael O'Brien
Exhibition:Tate Britain
THE EY EXHIBITION VAN GOGH AND BRITAIN
27 MARCH – 11 AUGUST 2019: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ey-exhibition-van-gogh-and-britain
About the Haiku:
backend rain…
a pair of canvas boots
framed by the door
Seasonal Note: backend = autumn rain (North of England)
If Vincent van Gogh could visit one of his exhibitions in modern times:
Vincent Van Gogh Visits the Gallery
Vincent And The Doctor | Doctor Who
Video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubTJI_UphPk
photo©Alan Summers 2019 |
Haibun came to the fore as literary writing, and as a new genre to some extent, by Matsuo Bashō, with in particular his masterpiece:
Oku no Hosomichi (奥の細道, originally おくのほそ道, meaning "Narrow road to/of the interior"), translated alternately as The Narrow Road to the Deep North and The Narrow Road to the Interior, is a major work of haibun by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, considered one of the major texts of Japanese literature of the Edo period. WIKIPEDIA
Haibun is now practiced in many ways,
and derives from straight prose accounts interspersed by haiku that create either vignettes in their own right, or lateral narratives, or cut aways as we see in documentary interviews, or filming drama where the camera breaks away to a café scene etc…
photo©Alan Summers 2019 |
but we have an extra one!