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?
The creation through my eyes
When God created Earth
Did He foresee so wide abuse and treachery?
I don’t know about you
But I’m an artist, The Hieronymus Bosch
I feel obliged to present my view
Let me call it “The Garden of Earthly Delights”
For I want to offer de tour paradise
And not just that, my dears
For all the human sins and iniquities,
To Hell will lead you, your indignities
The Creator of universe synergizes energy
In the act of unifying Adam with Eve
In the Garden of Eden, experiencing exotic beauty
To create an inimitable race
The quintessence of intelligence titled “humanity”
The world begins to breed, a paradise it feels
Carousing in wondrous fantasies
Seeking carnal pleasures from egoistic plays
Arousing sensual curiosity
Playing amorous games overtly without ignominy
Now follows The Last Judgment Day
Figures of torture, frozen waterways
The Prince of Hell tormenting for Seven Deadly sins
The immoralities eliciting eternal damnation
Humans succumbing to their evil temptations
I see the humanity’s fall from grace
Retribution for omission to follow His will-
To rise above covets, liberate from yearnings
To respect ‘The Tree of Life’ for eternity
Isn’t it what Lord directed, my dear?
Ask I,
The painter of “The Garden of Earthly Delights”
©Vandana Bhasin
06.04.2020
