Starry Night, Van Gogh, and Me!

The Starry Night by Anne Sexton

That does not keep me from having a terrible need of -- shall I say the word -- religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars. -- Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother

The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry night! This is how
I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:

into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.
-- All My Pretty Ones, 1962

Anne Sexton is one of my all-time favorite poets. When I read her poetry, it makes me want to write better, to think in those patterns. Granted, I don't want Sexton's fate-- an agorophobe most of her life, she began writing poetry at the suggestion of her shrink, and eventually succeeded in one of her suicide attempts. But man, would I love to write one poem as good as hers.

This poem, clearly, is written about Vincent Van Gogh's painting Starry Night-- which is one of my favorite pieces of art. I don't know if I would like it as much if it weren't for Sexton's poem, which I read before I saw the painting (or maybe concurrently-- it may have been reproduced in an anthology together.) When Andrew & I first got married, I had a print of this painting that hung in our living room. Yes, it is the cliche of the college student to get a Klimt, or a Van Gogh painting. But it's mostly because these paintings express so much about how you feel when you're first discovering yourself, learning about the world.

Today, I read on Google, is Van Gogh's birthday-- he was born in 1853. It's also the day that, in 1987, his painting "Sunflowers" sold at auction by Christie?s for £24.75 million. Not a bad birthday present-- even if it did come a bit late. :)

I like the google art they put up some days to announce a special day. It's a very clever marketing thing. If you haven't seen it today, pop over there and check it out. It's quite fun.

So on my own news of the day, it was a fairly busy morning. We did a bunch of work over at the new house we're buying to rent out. A dog had lived there before and the carpet smelled a bit doggy. So vacuum, air freshener. The house was owned by an elderly lady, and she apparently had not cleaned her light fixtures in ages- -they were all coated with a thick residue of yellowed grease. When we showed the house, people would go "gosh, it's kind of dark in here". The grease over the lightbulb covers plus the fact that all the bulbs were no higher than 40 watts made for a dim room. So I cleaned the bulb covers-- amazing! What I thought were gold-toned glass, which I thought I'd have to replace, turned out to be white. Ugh! :) But the house is now much better to show to try to rent out. I've seen that show on one of those home improvement channels-- Sell This House! where they fix up a place cause people viewing a house don't have enough imagination to picture a place with their own furniture, and instead of looking at the house, critique the decor. So I knew it makes a huge difference to do small things in a place that isn't going. (We do have the rent a little too high, too, I think, which is being remedied.)

Tomorrow, we're going up to Shreveport. It'll most likely be the last time I go up there with Andrew for a long time. I'm not going on that long of a road trip with him until after the babies are born, and then it'll be a while too. They won't be good for long car trips for a while, with the whole "feeding every two hours" thing. But we're planning on leaving very early in the morning, so you may not hear from me tomorrow. I may have the energy after the car trip to go to the coffee shop in town and post, but don't hold your breath. :)

Robotnik pointed out that my little countdown calendar shows less than 100 days now till the twins' due date! So we're into the last quarter of the game, folks. I just pray that they wait at least till June 10, which puts them at the average arrival for twins, which is about 3 1/2 weeks early. Any day after June 10th will count as gravy as far as I'm concerned. Keep those toes and fingers crossed, dearies.

Then, finally, since someone asked about this. Yes, I do have a baby registry. I don't feel completely comfortable putting it up on the blog, because I really do NOT expect any of my readers, unless they know me otherwise, to send me anything. But on the very remote chance that you were dying to buy my babies a bag of "onesies," I am registered at babies r us. I also have a baby-oriented wishlist on amazon.com. Don't feel pressured-- I am not at all at a loss for people to shower me with gifts, and what I don't get from family members will be cheerfully shopped for. :) I won't mention this again, and my shower is April 9, so if you want to get a cheerful thank you card you're welcome. But you're quite welcome to completely ignore this part of the post, too. This is why I'm burying it here at the end, so it's not an obvious plea. I've seen other blogs post wishlists, though, and respond to presents sent them, so apparently it's something some people like to do. If that's you, make sure you include your address in your contribution so I can send you a thank you note. Mustn't make Emily Post too upset with me (although I'm sure she wouldn't approve of wishlists in the first place....).