Grapes, Lemons, Pears and Apples – A Poem

I was inspired to write this poem by the intensity of van Gogh’s colours, and in particular the brushwork of the tablecloth. It seemed to me as if the fruit are falling into hyperspace, or are themselves experimenting with gravity on the cloth. Each piece of fruit, each grape, seems to be moving. At the same time, the circular light-coloured brush strokes reminded me of the moon, and of van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

More on ekphrastic poems here.

Falling Fruit

We feed each other fruit by the moonlit lake,
spotlight ghosts of fleeing clouds.

We lay on the shore and dip our fingers.
Silver-blue fish scatter. Time stills.

We fall toward each other like gravitation.
Yearn for the unobtainable.
Our tides are eternal, we promise.

We dip our fingers in time to taste it.
We feed each other fruit by the moonlit lake.

©elsp 2025