Out of time I carve a monument.
Out of a jagged block of convict years I carve it.
The sharp knife of dawn glitters in my hand
but how bare is everything tall tall tree
infinite air, the unrelaxing tension of the world
and only hope, hope only the kind eagle soars
and wheels in flight.
(Lines from Martin Carter’s “The Kind Eagle,” found in this collection.)
Today, as Haiti and Haitians continue to fight for survival, aided by folks all around the world, and on this day that many are celebrating the life and work of slain civil rights activist and leader, Martin Luther King Jr., two works of art by American artist Robert Indiana—the first sculpted in 1963/4, and the second in 2008—seem most apt symbols on which to reflect.
The two seem fitting representations . . . monuments carved out of two powerful sentiments of the 1960s and more recently of our times.
What do you see in the lines (lines of the poem, and/or the sculptures)?
