Special Edition: Michael Burch

Michael R. Burch

Unbent, unbowed

 

Unbent, unbowed,

we remain, at heart, human,
believing in love

until the final cessation
and beyond…
***

 

Archaischer torso Apollos (“Archaic torso of Apollo”)

by Rainer Maria Rilke                                                      

translation by Michael R. Burch

 

We cannot know the beheaded god

nor his eyes’ forfeited visions. But still

the figure’s trunk glows with the strange vitality

of a lamp lit from within, while his composed will

 

emanates dynamism. Otherwise

the firmly muscled abdomen could not beguile us,

nor the centering loins make us smile

at the thought of their generative animus.

 

Otherwise the stone might seem deficient,

unworthy of the broad shoulders, of the groin

projecting procreation’s triangular spearhead upwards,

 

unworthy of the living impulse blazing wildly within

like an inchoate star—demanding our belief.

You must change your life.

***

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