Dear Judy,

Let me first apologize for this long delay of almost a week in my response to you. I don't have any excuse for it other than a difficult week with lots of work to do. At any rate, it was a most fortunate accident which brought you here, especially for me. I have always loved your posts and this time is no exception.

Below is The Temptation of Saint Anthony, a triptyc by Bosch which exemplifies both his love of detail and the Christian theme in his paintings. Both main features have been pointed out by you in your post. This triptyc is considered to be one of Bosch's most characteristic paintings. It was painted in 1505-1506 and is preserved in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon (Portugal). It is an invaluable masterpiece. Please accept it as a token of my appreciation for you.

Hieronymus Bosch - The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Dear Cheryl,

I really don't know how to apologize for this extended delay in replying to your kind comment on Roger's poem. And I so much agree with you on the divine origin of creativity. It would be incredible if the world recognized how necessary it is for its own survival to further creativity at all levels. These are really bad times when the most important things are discontinued and superfluous matters favored. Hearing you mention Copernicus, Galileo and Pasteur makes one wonder whether the world will someday be again blessed with the inspired creativity of great scientists like them, or will have to resign to only count with the sort we see these days forever. "By their works ye shall know them." Take for example the huge amount of money invested in a failed experiment - 'The Hadron Collider' - in Europe, and I am most pessimistic about that. I am pretty sure the scientists behind that monstrous proposition are the kind of emotionless robots that you so aptly describe.

And yes, 'I Like to Think So' is a great poem. It is the sort of poem that talks to your soul in the same way that I remember how your own poems seemed to talk to my soul as well when I read them. It is the same with all kinds of divinely inspired artistic or scientific work.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Dear Sara,

I am so glad that you have visited and posted again. And yes, Bosch's head was spinning with ideas. He indeed was one of the most creative artists ever, perhaps more creative than all the modern surrealist painters put together.

As to the responses to this thread from dear visitors, I too am very happy with both their number and quality, and have of course deeply enjoyed reading and answering them. Note that quite a few have been by people who had no previous knowledge of Bosch or his art but have been equal to the difficult - yet pleasurable - task of commenting both. 

As you say, it was Kathleen who triggered all this; in fact, I have mentioned it several times by now. She says I would have featured Bosch sooner or later and she may be right, as for a very long time I have been a fan of his enigmatic art - almost to the point of obsession. But Kathleen had no way of knowing this and, anyway, it was an incredible coincidence that she not only suggested me to reopen this forum but also that of all the possible choices, it was Bosch the one she had in mind for it. But then, I have been getting accustomed to this sort of "coincidences" of late.

Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Hi Luis Miguel,

Thanks for all the time and effort you put into everything, especially your precise translations into English.  Peoples' suggestions are just words, but what you or I or everyone else chooses to do with those suggestions are our choices.  Sometimes just one word or one sentence can set us into motion in a positive or negative chain-reaction, sometimes in the exact opposite of what we thought would be achieved.  That has happened a lot recently, a lot of good and bad, and a lot of opposite response, some of it very good reactions to bad responses.  Those are other stories.  But thank you very much for choosing to feature Bosch and choosing to put in a lot of your time, and also thanks to all the other people here who don't speak/read/write English as a first language.  It takes a lot of effort and L O V E  of your audience!