~ Apollo ~

Azalea Shadows


Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his undiscovered head
in which the apples of the eyes ripen. Yet
his torso still glows like a candelabra,
in which his seeing, now constrained,

remains and shines. Otherwise the curve
of the breast could not dazzle you, nor could a smile
pass through the quiet axis of the loins
to that centre where procreation swelled.

Otherwise this stone would be disfigured, and cut short,
under the shoulders’ transparent fall,
and would not glimmer so, like a predator’s pelt:

and would not flare out from all its edges
like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must transmute your life.

Rilke