Michelangelo Buonarroti (Free Verse Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

(after A. J. J. Visser)

It's where I go thousands of years back
with this hard marble rock,
I concentrate and I give strict attention,
for moments I have got to stand back,
once more I hit the chisel with greater blows,
notice sparks flying from the top of it,
I chisel on his face, his nose and under-lip
and the figure speaks to me and I chisel on,
I know that he was heroic and for women attractive,
I have got to determine the proportions correct
to get him true to life as a man,
of him I have done research and bare great knowledge
but here I have got to bring out the best from under my chisel
and when I am finished again I stand back and David looks at me.

[Reference:"Michelangelo" by A. J. J. Visser.]