03 March 2010

some rilke to break your teeth and spark your soul

{o}
sometimes the truth lies in the end
if we imagine our being as a room of any size,
it seems that most of us know only
a single corner of that room,
a spot by the window, a narrow strip
on which we keep walking back and forth.
that gives a kind of security.
but isn't insecurity with all its dangers
so much more human?

we are not prisoners of that room.

connemara flow
on the rock
i have great faith in all things not yet spoken.
i want to free what waits within me
so that what no one yet has dared to wish for
may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

if this is arrogant, God, may i be forgiven,
but what i need to say is this:
may what i do flow from me like a river,
without anger, without timidness,
no forcing and no holding back.

then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
i will sing You as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

{rainer maria rilke

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3 comments:

  1. sigh. one of my favorites.

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  2. isn't he ridiculous? i mean seriously. how does he do it?? that first quote is from a letter. who writes such deep, beautiful things in a letter??

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  3. so good beth. i need more poetry in my life.

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