"Prince of Desire" (I.P.)

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ap&npgno=x4...

“The lights go out and I die.
Tomorrow I will be reborn.
Tomorrow I will dance again.”
(Rudolf Nureyev – March, 1938 - January, 1993)

The eyes of a rapt, romantic poet...
cheekbones of a cat – lips of a gigolo;
sinews – rippling...sleek, well oiled
with all the power of a coiled-up spring.
The face of a Grecian god that seduced
the lens with its own Promethean fire.

A prince, who danced his way to fame
with a spirit’s grace, who almost kissed
the stars for us and in his wake left awe
and beauty. A prodigy of Russian stock,
married to the moods of the inner soul –
the only love he was ever true to.

The child who walked to school barefooted.
Whose shoes, when he was gone, auctioned
for twenty thousand pounds...The man,
born on a train, who took a leap for freedom
and ended up, face-to-face with himself;
a place not even a prince could escape from.