Le Penseur, by Greg Sevik

Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris, by Auguste Rodin (France) 1882. Photography by Douglas O'Brien (Canada) contemporary (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Le Penseur

The thinker tenses, 
skin stretched with muscles’ tautness. 
Hanging ape-hands betray the physical, 
animal quality of his thought.

The thinker has a problem,
skin in the game. 

The thinker’s grimace conveys not concentration 
but travail.
A twisted posture expresses not repose 
but painful strain.

The thinker contemplates
because he cannot kick his problem to submission. 
He may resort to force;
meanwhile, he imagines a stratagem.

The thinker’s massive body bends 
as thinking weighs him down. 
He bears his thoughts like rocks from a quarry 
or water from a well.

Greg Sevik

Greg Sevik is an Assistant Professor of English at Cayuga Community College in Auburn, New York. His scholarly essays have appeared in such venues as The Hopkins Quarterly and The Emily Dickinson Journal. His poetry was published recently in Cholla Needles.