Michaelangelo's First Pieta
Carve a compassion. Older than you are
He lies upon your lap. What can you do
But hold him with a trust you also fear.
Thus Micahelangelo
Saw what a girl may do for gods. O we
Have mercy on this man a woman holds,
God in the grip of our humanity.
All this the sculptor moulds.
But more. It is a prayer that he is saying
Wordless, except that written on her breast
He writes his name. This girl he is displaying
Has also brought him rest.
(New Collected Poems, 124)
Poem and sculpture,
word and image,
chiselled form and crafted articulation,
one representation seeking to interpret the other,
one medium mediating the ungrasped essence of the other,
compassion hand carved and hand written,
because passionately felt and expertly expressed.
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