Best Torso Poems

One Tired Torso

One tired torso stands and sits,
reeling from its aching hips.

The lumbar vertebrae are all but gone,
with femur bones that are old and worn.

A pelvis full that bore two baby girls,
is now a barren and empty world.

A gnarled patella is the mark,
of the many...

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Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within, while his composed will
emanates dynamism. Otherwise
the firmly muscled abdomen could...

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Nothing-ness fills me 
again. Once visiting a funeral
home, a child asked me,
why do the people die ?

How do I explain the dark 
side of life ? A blunt trauma,
makes me jaded. One collapsing
process creates the black hole.

A nude, the tall figure, stands 
on the rock,...

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Sonnets X-XVI


Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within, while his composed will
emanates dynamism. Otherwise
the...

Continue reading...