‘The Cure of Folly’ by Hieronymous Bosch, circa 1490
Here is a cure for madness. The patient,
stupid with pain, credulity or
the random gaze of the mad, the distraught, looks
in our direction. He is being trepanned.
The surgeon, having pierced the shaved skull,
looks modestly away. A monk with a jug
of wine or of water and a nun
with a closed book gesture to the consultant
as if to say, “Thus perish all follies”.
KEEPING THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING
'CROSSING THE BROOK': J.M.W. TURNER
THE OLD RAPTURES
THE OLD RAPTURES
THE OCCASIONAL JUBILEE