Pygmalion's Meditation

*(for the 'Myths and Legend' competition)
 
Great Gods of Fate and Fury  
guide my hands and  
bless these implements  
 
as they attempt to channel passion  
into the making of a marvel  
granting warmth to an expression  
a tribute statuesque  
to the power and compassion  
you have somehow siphoned into  
this one dynamic form  
 
Help me  
Nay,  
Allow these hands  
to catch those sparks of shooting stars  
and place them in her eyes  
to hear an ardent heartbeat  
thumping out my name  
 
to put to shame and rest
all those hollow harpies
that sought to swoop, devouring
from my mortal breast
the life's blood and dreamed-of flesh
contained within this marble womb  
 
I shall name her  
... G a l a t e a ...  
Pure, perfect, and unchangeable  
My Magnum Opus  
and indulgent gift unto myself  
 
I pray thee, hearken, Aphrodite.  
For if you suffer man,  
give me but a chance  
to whisper you my wish.  
 
Give her life  
that she and I may share  
this time together  
 
I fear, without her lips' taste,  
that I shall waste away in pining,  
in denial  
that life could be worth living apart  
from the finest poetry of my craft.  
An ideal made manifest;  
the dream that should not die.  
 
Keep her young as I decay,  
hale and hearty as I fade.  
Allow me just this mortal span,  
this attempt,  
to love her as no other man  
could possibly assay.  
 
Are you listening my sweet?  
Can your spirit hear my pleas?  
I am anxious, trembling, waiting, wanting,  
to invite you to our home  
and I can only hope  
you are somewhere in this stone