Atlas
TITLE: Atlas
AUTHOR: Gianna Giusti
CATEGORY: Body
AUTHOR COMMENTARY:
Atlas is a poem about the mythic titan from Greek mythology who was doomed to an eternity of holding the sky above the earth. Through the poem I tried to explore the utter desperation of his situation which is one of physical imprisonment. While his burden is heavy and he feels at each second that his physical limits have been reached, his body somehow continues to bear the weight. His constant fear of falling under the weight of the sky is tinged by the sense of relief his failure would bring. He longs for rest, but with each second of fear of failure and subsequent success he maintains his faith.
ENTRY:
I cannot do it anymore
cannot cannot, this heaving air
is heavy on my heaving heart
I hear my heart beat hard, my hands
hoist heavens high and higher still
and with each day and with each night
my apathetic muscles strain—
contracted chain of human flesh
perspiring perpetually
and still I strain and struggle while
upon my shoulders rests the sky
beneath my feet the wretched earth
still ebbs and flows as I watch on
myself unchanged and statue like
still feels and feels and feels and feels
and every second I endure
my shouldered sorrow’s substance swells
and every second I endure
a bated breath believing that
my grip will fail my fists will slip
the sky descending—release me.
The world could end if I could end
give in give up, my strength give out
into eternal respite and
fatigue indulged—sweet sweet sweet sleep
but I endure with little hope
that heroes may relieve my soul
my shoulders ache with hot despair
my faith unshaken holds me there.