…If we surrendered to earth’s intelligencewe could rise up rooted, like trees. Instead we entangle ourselvesin knots of our own makingand struggle, lonely and confused. So like children, we begin again… to fall,patiently to trust our heaviness.Even a bird has to do thatbefore he can fly. ― Rainer Maria Rilke, from “How Sure Gravity’s Law,”… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
See how in their veins all becomes spirit:into each other they mature and grow.Like axles, their forms tremblingly orbit,round which it whirls, bewitching and aglow.Thirsters, and they receive drink,watchers, and see: they receive sight.Let them into one another sinkso as to endure each other outright. –– Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Lovers”, trans. John J. L.… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
LifeTo Lou Andreas-Salome I held myself too open, I forgotthat outside not just things exist and animalsfully at ease in themselves, whose eyesreach from their lives’ roundedness no differentlythan portraits do from frames; forgot that Iwith all I did incessantly crammedlooks into myself; looks, opinion, curiosity.Who knows: perhaps eyes form in spaceand look on everywhere.… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love. — Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet. Sidgwick and Jackson (January 1, 1945)
I, 45 You come and go. The doors swing closedever more gently, almost without a shudder.Of all those who move through the quiet houses,you are the quietest. We become so accustomed to you,we no longer look upwhen your shadow falls over the book we are readingand makes it glow. For all thingssing you: at timeswe… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love. — Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet. Sidgwick and Jackson (January 1, 1945)
I live my life in growing orbitswhich move out over the things of the world.Perhaps I can never achieve the last,but that will be my attempt. I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,and I have been circling for a thousand years,and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, or a storm,or… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
And you should not let yourself be confused in your solitude by the fact that there is something in you that wants to move out of it.5 ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet. Sidgwick and Jackson (January 1, 1945)
[You, neighbor god, if sometimes in the night] You, neighbor god, if sometimes in the nightI rouse you with loud knocking, I do soonly because I seldom hear you breatheand know: you are alone.And should you need a drink, no one is thereto reach it to you, groping in the dark.Always I hearken. Give but… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
Who has not sat, afraid, before his heart’s curtain? – Rainer Maria Rilke, from “The Fourth Elegy,” Duino Elegies. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. (Vintage; Bilingual edition October 6, 2009) Originally published 1923.
The Vale of Soul-Making 