Pictures From Van Gogh (The Potato-Eaters) Poem by Raymond Farrell

Homely coarse peasant faces
cut from the soil
dark clay-caked hands
bent arthritic fingers
raising chunks of potato
in thankfulness
you can see it
in their eyes
God be thanked
God be thanked
the bare table board
their altar
these few morsels
their sacrament
give us this day
simple naive purity
our daily bread
aching backs sweaty brows
and forgive us
these are the salt of the earth
our trespasses
everything is just as it was
as we forgive
an elusive realism
those who trespass against us
long since murdered by photography
cleverly
literal truth
emerges
from behind
the violent distorted strokes
shocking our integrity
with its full impact
not all are impressed
how can they feel
what they have never seen
what they have never known
must they feign concern
better to hide behind
the painterly process
than to extol virtues
they've never known.