I was leafing through an old art magazine when I came across a little blurb about Georges Seurat (1859 – 1891) written by Edwin Seaver for some sort of art reproductions club. The first few lines struck me as some found poetry – that is, poetry made by rearranging another text to bring out the poetic qualities of it. The words are by Mr. Seaver, the collage and composition are by me. I have given it a new title, though – “The Measure of Success.” Enjoy and may you find some poetry today too! (A few other found poem posts, if you are curious – click here, here, or here!)

The words to the poem:

Studious, solitary, painstaking

Georges Seurat died at the age of thirty-one,

overworked and largely unacknowledged.

His professional life did not last

much longer than seven years,

and in that time he

sold two pictures.

Thus, as someone has pointed out,

he was twice

as successful commercially

as Van Gogh,

who sold only

one.

– Edwin Seaver

arranged by Marcy Erb