Starry Night Cabin fever

"Starry Night," 5 x 7 watercolor card

When winter closes in, as cold as the stars, with short days, long nights, and rain or snow...
Cabin fever? Tis a season for the warmth of solitude, for quiet, for thought, for memories.
All you need is a cat or dog, a fire, a loved one, books, stories, imaginations, poetry.

"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 Starry Night

Anne Sexton

Inspired by Van Gogh's painting

"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."