So I'm going to retire from FaceBook for awhile and reason, improbably given the lack of things we can do, is because I have so much to do.
Writing a poem a day is one of them, and today's NaPoWriMo prompt was one I nearly ignored completely. Have a look at it:
"Today’s (optional) prompt is ekphrastic in nature – but rather particular! Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem from the point of view of one person/animal/thing from Hieronymous Bosch’s famous (and famously bizarre) triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights. Whether you take the position of a twelve-legged clam, a narwhal with a cocktail olive speared on its horn, a man using an owl as a pool toy, or a backgammon board being carried through a crowd by a fish wearing a tambourine on its head, I hope that you find the experience deliriously amusing. And if the thought of speaking in the voice of a porcupine-as-painted-by-a-man-who-never-saw-one leaves you cold, perhaps you might write from the viewpoint of Bosch himself? Very little is known about him, so there’s plenty of room for invention, embroidery, and imagination."
So my first thought was oh good, I like doing ekphrastic poems! Read further. Slammed up against a wall. Don't know HB and now I've clicked on his triptych I realized I've seen pictures of this painting before but found it too busy for me to take the time to decipher some of it. Odd, because I once had Dali posters in my bedroom. Odder still that I went to get that particular album and can't find it. Keep in mind that I have little stickers on all my old photo albums that have the dates on them. "Spring 1982-Winter 1982/3", that sort of thing. Still in the odd department, I love Sveva Caetani's work, and a lot of it has to be studied deeply. But I digress.
The link up there to the painting turned out to be a marvellous leap into what's in it. I urge you to check it out if you like. I know, I know, at the moment we're being bombarded by so many videos and articles and photos and memes and cartoons. This has been going on since the advent of social media but is it just me or is there so much more of it of late? Then I remember we're all supposed to be holed up for the foreseeable future unless something deems us essential so yes, of course there's more.
Back to my reaction to the prompt, I then read about spears and tambourines and cocktail olives, etc. and thought there is no fucking way I'm getting into that, but now I've seen some of the images up close, as it were, let's just see what happens!
Much later...
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| Screen capture from the link above from The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch |
In the Garden We Dine on Those Who Laugh at Us
There we were, the six of us
ready to feast on
that bastard in the armor
clutching the chalice
he called the holy grail.
I was closest to his neck
wherein I saw
that throbbing font of life,
how could I be expected
to miss the chance
to bury my jaws in him,
he who laughed at me,
said I looked like I couldn’t
decide if I was reptile or dog
with my claws and maw—
well, who’s in charge now?
§
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