Archaic Torso and Angel

[dragonyphoenix]

Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

Maya Angelou's Touched by an Angel
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness

Comments

[maramcreates]

The second stanza in 'Archaic Torso of Apollo' is especially great (the whole of it is great, but this stanza especially):

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

And Maya Angelou, what can I say :) ? Great choice!

[dragonyphoenix]

Simple-minded soul that I am, I think I like it for the ending line: You must change your life.