I think we've thoroughly hashed over the question of whether we may post on Mastery works by living poets, and I think we've decided that this is fair use, so I'll go ahead and post "The Charioteer" by A.E. Stallings.
I'm fairly sure that
this statue is the one being described.
Can so new a poem be a classic of the art? Maybe not, but it's an example that moves me. Even the choice to put spaces between the couplets and to use initial caps is an important part of its effect: the push and pull of stasis and change.
The Charioteer
Delphi Museum
Lips apart, dry eyes steady,
He stands forever at the ready
Fingers open, sensitive
To the horses' take and give
(Although no single steed remains
At the end of tangled reins),
It is as if we are not here,
The way the patient charioteer
Looks beyond us into space,
For some sign to begin the race.
He has stared down centuries.
No wave from us, no sudden breeze,
Will trick him now to a false start.
He has learned the racer's art
To stand watchful at the gate,
Empty out the mind, and wait.
As long as it is in our power,
We gaze--for maybe half an hour--
Before we turn from him to go.
Outside, the hills begin to glow,
Burnished by a brazen sun
Whose course now is almost run.
We shiver, and around us feel
Vanished horses plunge and wheel.