At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself,… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already werebehind you, like the winter that has just gone by.For among these winters there is one so endlessly winterthat only by wintering through it will your heart survive. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from “The Sonnets to Orpheus,“ Ahead of All Parting:The Selected Poetry and Prose of… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
I am alone but not alone enough to make every moment holy. — Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (Riverhead Hardcover; 2nd prt. Edition, March 19, 1996) Originally published April 1, 1905.
And the loneliest people above all contribute most to commonality. I have said before that in this vast melody of life, some learn more, some less; therefore, in this big orchestra, everyone has his own role. The one who can perceive the entire melody is at the same time the loneliest and the closest to… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
I would like to sing someone to sleep,to sit beside someone and be there.I would like to rock you and sing softlyand go with you to and from sleep.I would like to be the one in the housewho knew: The night was cold.And I would like to listen in and listen outinto you, into the… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
…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
The Vale of Soul-Making 