Poetry Magazine
San Biagio, at Montepulciano
Columns, arches, vaults: how he knew
The ways you promise what you lack;
And that your bodies, like your souls,
Always slip from our grasping hands.
Space is such a lure . . . Swift to disappoint,
As they raise and topple clouds, the sky's
Architects still offer more than ours,
Who only build a scaffolding of dreams.
He dreamed, all the same; but on that day,
He gave a better use to beauty's shapes:
He understood that form means to die.
And this, his final work, is a coin
With both sides bare. He made in stone,
Of this great room, the arrow and the bow.
Source: Poetry (April 2008).
Biography
Yves Bonnefoy has published seven major collections of verse, several books of tales, numerous studies of literature and art, and an extensive dictionary of mythology. He lives in Paris.
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Arts & Sciences, Architecture & Design
POET’S REGION France
Poetic Terms Sonnet
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