Give him strength, crouched on one knee in the dark with the Earth on his back, &n
Give him strength, crouched on one knee in the dark with the Earth on his back, balancing the seven seas, the oceans, five, kneeling in ruthless, empty, endless space for grace of whale, dolphin, sea-lion, shark, seal, fish, every kind which swarms the waters. Hero. Hard, too, heavy to hold, the mountains; burn of his neck and arms taking the strain – Andes, Himalayas, Kilimanjaro – give him strength, he heaves them high to harvest rain from skies for streams and rivers, he holds the rivers, holds the Amazon, Ganges, Nile, hero, hero. Hired by no-one, heard in a myth only, lonely, he carries a planet’s weight, islands and continents, the billions there, his ears the last to hear their language, music, gunfire, prayer; give him strength, strong girth, for elephants, tigers, snow leopards, polar bears, bees, bats, the last ounce of a humming-bird. Broad-backed in infinite, bleak black, he bears where Earth is, nowhere, head bowed, a genuflection to the shouldered dead, the unborn’s hero, he is love’s lift; sometimes the moon rolled to his feet, given. Atlas by Carol Ann Duffy -- source link
#greek mythology#greek cosmology#greek god#celestial sphere#shoulders