Saturday, July 7, 2012

David Hominidae

sculpture: michelangelo     photoart: sharon auberle


David Hominidae
after Michelangelo

by Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld

For stone that breaks the giant hold, for strength
I love you not, but love the languid length
Where right the slack and narrow arm now takes
A certain fortitude that weakness makes.
Then, after turbulence, I love your grace
At end, when grace is grace in rest.  Of rock
Your softness; yet no hardihood let mock
Your maleness, closed and petalled in its place.
I love for life, for so short days, for bud
Laid out on block, for chiselled pallor, blood--
More than the upward rising of the lines,
The deep dependence downward that defines
A homily to God by mortal strain,
The manly droop of marble
                                          And its vein.

            ~ first published in Southwest Review