Art History

On my desk, a model of a white Cycladic head:
small, mounted on a piece of marble,
eyeless, no eyes to see with.
 
What was it that I wanted
from the beautiful? from art?
 
 
*
 
Was I waiting for the stone mouth
to open
 
or the ears, symmetrical, at the side of the face
to awaken, to receive
 
the sounds of the places that have been cut off?
 
 
*
 
of the arms
hands
feet
toes
 
breasts
thighs
 
skin
lungs
whir whir
of the spinal pulse
the beating
heart
 
 
*
 
In the big arena that it took
more than one hundred men to build
 
first the men with shovels
dig out a hole.
 
Then they place the bound woman
in
 
so the spectators can throw
the stones.
 
 
*
 
O form
 
These are our elaborate
figures.
 
O human
form.
 
 
 

Nadia Colburn edits Anchor Magazine: where spirituality and social justice meet and works as a writing teacher and integrative coach. Her poetry and prose have appeared widely in places such as The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Literary Imagination, Kenyon Review, Boston Globe Magazine, Yes! Magazine and elsewhere. She lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband and two children. More about her can be seen at www.nadiacolburn.com.