S8: E35 Magpie on the Gallows: Poets Respond to Bosch and Bruegel

Well, and so this painting, Ken, is one that has had presence in your life for a long time.

And also of the three paintings that we're looking at is perhaps the least abstract.

But... also is certainly when um when you talk about you know the the absent presence of the fowler and and noting that it's in the foreground like we know where that fowler is but it's in the foreground where there's this always this looming entity But in this poem and in this picture, the looming entity is something that serves a very important function instead of damnation or temptation or something maybe more abstract than that.

Yeah, I'm not precise about your question, but I do know that it makes me think that, you know, I think that one of the titles it had, the official title, is With Skaters and Birds.

And the birds in the poem, many of them are under the trebuchet.

You know, they're about to go.

And that's the foreground.

In the background are all the gorgeous birds.

The children on the huge ice pond and the river

pond.

But, so, say your question again, because...

It was more of an observation to respond to.

You nailed it.

Oh, okay, because

it's just interesting how we're asked to observe those things.

They make us think about the 16th century, and they make us think about our lives.

Yeah.

And about some kind of metaphor that is at play, metaphors at play there.

And

the necessity of having these different parts of the self, different ways to observe the world that are held all the time to be present.

So, you know, you have to be able to hold those realities to be fully present.

I love great painting for that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's it's such a lush, you know, opportunity to pull from for creating a piece of writing.