Finishing The World

Rain, heavily pouring down, so a man steps into a museum for cover. There he observes the art in paintings that he never experienced before. The poet as translated by Ms. Caws leaves the reader with this last line, a line which just blew my mind :

* "In each painting, I think, it's as if God were giving up on finishing the world."

What did this man, dripping wet with rain, see in artist's canvases which caused him to question the works of God ? Did artists capture beauty the man hadn't seen himself in the world ? Were the artists able to illustrate life free of the inhumanities that this poor man sees daily in his struggle to live this life ? 

Just what indicated to this man, in now out of the rain, after viewing canvases in a museum, that God may be tardy in completing the work started when he began the construction of our world ? If the reader is led to believe, as I do, that viewing art in which the depiction  of beauty commands the focal point, the dismal display of humanities' interaction with nature is truly a negative. 

May we all imagine a scenario ; if we were constructing our world would there be a point of disgust when we'd feel like giving up finishing ? I can; can you ?

Ronald C. Downie

* "The Museum" by Yves Bonnefoy translated from the French by Mary Ann Caws : Poetry, Nov. 2014.