Rising to Ronovan’s challenge to write a poem based on The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych by Heironymous Bosch.
They were not so naïve in those days of mass misery and oppression, when grotesques crouched in every doorway, and famine lurked at every winter’s end. Not so naïve as to believe in Heaven without Hell, master without slave, and the divine right of mad despots without the servitude of the poor.
Even then, the world was a teeming mess of futility, navel-gazing and lotus-eating. Paradise is solitude, the quiet of nature. The end, coming soon, to screens all around the world, is Hell and the final madness. So sophisticated and worldly-wise, are we, yet we will fall into the same pit of screaming darkness as the leprous villeins who feared the incubi and succubi of their dreams and that the sky might fall upon their heads.
Scream to the sky
the rich and powerful
are not listening
Jane Dougherty Writes 
So pensively written!
Thank you. Human toxicity is much on my mind at the moment.
Pleasure!
🙂
This is fabulous Jane I have been contemplating doing this one….it’s gorgeous and you see it so well!
Do it! There’s such a lot to be said about this set of paintings.
I know it absolutely beautiful isn’t it 💜
Fantastic!
🌹🌹
“Paradise is solitude, the quiet of nature.” – paradise is the bribe from the haves to the have nots to get their perpetual servitude in return of a promise that will never to be delivered in one’s life time.
Opium of the people.
I could hear the screams through your words Jane but they have been timeless and universal. There is nobody to listen!
We can’t count on divine intervention to get us out of this mess.
Reminds me of Leo Tolstoy’s story: ‘God Sees the Truth but Waits!’ But I would say, how long!!
Making excuses for God’s inaction is classic.
Thank you!
They most certainly are not.
I’ve done several collages based on this painting over the years. There is always more to see. (K)
What I enjoy most, I think, is that we haven’t got a clue what most of it means. I have a hunch that nobody at the time did either.
Yes it will always be totally inscrutable.
It’s good to know that some mysteries will remain so.
That was well written. It was something that I’ve been seeing as I’m dealing with my frustrations with humanity in general.
Thanks! I despair too. We don’t seem to have got more sense over the centuries.
You’re welcome. It is sad. Technology may improve, but the toxicity adapts to the changing of times.
There’s so much we could do but we don’t. We’ve put men on the moon but haven’t managed to make a can opener that works, so I don’t hold out much hope for anything really difficult to create.
There are times I seriously wonder. Nice contrast over there. It’s not always about creative things, but also with allocation of resources much like how countries can fund wars but mysteriously have no money for education or employment opportunities.
Ah, that’s because there’s no money to be made out of public education and public healthcare. There’s plenty to be made in the private sector, especially drugs, but nothing beats the good old dead cert bet of armaments. You can even sell guns to both sides in any conflict and nobody bats an eyelid.
Yeah, seriously. The money is there, but the allocation of it certainly isn’t.