A Poem for a Starry Sunday Night

The Starry Night by Anne Sexton from The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton (Houghton Mifflin)
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 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.

Since it's Sunday I'm honoring my sabbath from offering commentary/reflections on Sunday.  Instead, I'm offering the image that inspired Anne Sexton's poem for your own inspiration and reflection.  Enjoy!

Welcome Morning

WELCOME MORNING

by Anne Sexton from The Awful Rowing Toward God (Chattus & Windus)

There is joy

in all:

in the hair I brush each morning,

in the Cannon towel, newly washed,

that I rub my body with each morning,

in the chapel of eggs I cook

each morning,

in the outcry from the kettle

that heats my coffee

each morning,

in the spoon and the chair

that cry 'hello there, Anne'

each morning,

in the godhead of the table

that I set my silver, plate, cup upon

each morning.

All this is God,

right here in my pea-green house

each morning

and I mean,

though often forget,

to give thanks,

to faint down by the kitchen table

to a prayer of rejoicing

as the holy birds at the kitchen window

peck into their marriage of seeds.

So, while I think of it,

let me paint a thank-you on my palm

for this God, this laughter in the morning,

lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,

dies young.

No commentary or reflection this welcome Saturday morning, just an invitation . . . to share a joy you experience today.