Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Swenson and Giacometti


The Tall Figures of Giacometti*
by May Swensen

We move by means of our mud bumps,
We bubble as do the dead but more slowly.

The products of excruciating purges
we are squeezed out thin hard and dry.

If we exude a stench it is petrified sainthood.
Our feet are large crude fused together

solid like anvils. Ugly as truth is ugly
we are meant to stand upright a long time

and shudder without motion
under the scintillating pins of light

that dart between our bodies
of pimpled mud and your eyes.








*Alberto Giacometti - Swiss sculptor, painter, and printmaker.
The piece shown is entitled City Square (1948)