A Poem by Ruth Hill

'Round Round Rodin

Rodin carves curves round,
no angle, no anger, angel and human, one.
Besides the bulk of greater importance,
there is the delicate inference:
either the ether is real, or the real ethereal.
Who has he chosen to carve?
And what subject?
You and I are in his dream;
do not object to being his object.
Though cast you are not cast,
though duplicated you are not duplicated,
though modeled in a negative mold,
he models nothing negative.
Myths transcending our transgressions,
he sees all truth, but chooses which truth to tell.
When making us out of clay, he tells the truth.
When making us out of bronze, he tells the truth,
when making us out of higher thoughts,
he tells the truth if we wish to see it.
Elan Vital sculpts with élan and vitality.
Donatello donated, Rilke pilfered,
Rose posed.  Knowing full well the passion
he spent on her was now spent on others;
she sank in shadows of shades and young Camille,
like Despair and the Falling Man.
When you were young, you needed her rose;
when you were old, you needed your youth.
The sweet delicious art models were.
Did he dally with Dalou, too?
Dante the Poet was his thinker.
My grandfather was named August, loved mortar;
but, mortified, he would exclude de nude.
How French was the Poor Mouth-ed hero of Calais,
looking the same as any other French DP
strafed or exiled by the Germans,
like so many of my French post-war neighbors.
How familiar that pose!
Incensed by your sense, essence,
Ecole des Beaux Arts: your bad, you're bad, your loss.
The boss:  Auguste.  That beard
by Bourdelle is bordello weird.
But in your gift, a rift: why is war a girl?
Are girls not the war inside yourself?
War is mainly man's domain.

Ruth Hill was born and educated in upstate New York, and traveled North America extensively.  She is a Certified Design Engineer, lifelong dedicated tutor, and enjoys spoken word.  She has won 1st prizes in: Gulf Coast Ethnic & Jazz Poetry, Heart Poetry, Lucidity, Poetry for Human Rights, and Writers Rising Up! 200 of her poems have won awards or publication.