The Gift Horse
Some readers have contacted me in the past to say they cannot access You Tube for one reason or another so I am posting another poem + video here today. (See below.)
Alternatively, you may be able to access it directly on You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5zt3lkwT9k
OR Go to my You Tube channel and search by title:
http://www.youtube.com/rogerNtaber
The
4th Plinth is the north-west plinth in Trafalgar Square in central London,
UK set aside for a rolling program of contemporary art works. The current work
depicts a skeletal horse in bronze. The artist, German-American Hans Haacke,
says it is a tribute to economist Adam Smith and English painter George Stubbs.
(The horse is based on an engraving by Stubbs taken from ‘The Anatomy of the
Horse’ published in 1766.) Tied to the horse’s front leg is an electronic
ribbon displaying live feed from the London Stock Exchange thereby completing
the link between power, money and history.
There
are many metaphors for wealth and power of which The Trojan (Gift) Horse of
myth and legend is but one…
THE
GIFT HORSE
Measure
of means, icon for history
gifted
with beauty and power;
a
horse, once tamed, a worthy ally
An
ages-old metaphor for industry,
no
less so for sport, and leisure;
measure
of means, icon for history
Well
trained, no more trustworthy
a
vehicle of human endeavour;
a
horse, once tamed, a worthy ally
Sometime
victim of the inhumanity
human
beings show one another;
measure
of means, icon for history
Life
force against worldly adversity,
(live
metaphor for Earth Mother)
a
horse; once tamed, a worthy ally
Imaging
death as a skeletal memory,
elegy
to nature and human nature;
a
horse, once tamed, a worthy ally,
measure
of means, icon for history
Copyright R. N.
Taber 2016
Labels: art, bronze, fourth, Hans Haacke (sculptor), history, life, London, money, plinth, poem, poetry, power, sculpture, Stock Exchange, Trafalgar Square, wealth
posted by R. N. Taber | 09:14
|
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