Sculpture

“La Pieta” by Michelangelo

I kneel before those who
elicit the secrets of stone
who with uncanny placement
and grasp touch the mallet
to chisel on ancient cold blocks
of raw travertine limestone
or coarsely veined marble
whose handsome impurities
came to their grain when
convulsions within white-hot
wombs bore the offspring
of fire and mountain

I kneel before those who
ordain with their powerful
fingers perfection of man
tactile genius that coaxes
from hard angularities
timeless soft contours of flesh
in its model of moments
alive with expressions of all
the emotion a heart can
experience giving the gift
of immortal endurance to
human impermanent life

I kneel before those who
make flawless the flawed
forms of body and conscience
we carry through time
it’s the sculptor whose skills
can transform the prosaic
with sumptuous subtleties
elevate banal existence
creating from homely dead stone
possibilities at their epitome
more than painter or poet
the sculptor sits closest to God