God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
--from Rainer Maria Rilke's Book of Hours
9 comments:
More animation. Gotta learn how to do it!
Oh; I hope everyone is all right . . .
Sometimes I can't figure out any way to express the feeling of the day. That's when I turn to the poets.
Rilke? OK, it is definitely extreme.
But what I've been thinking about is the soul retrieval treatment. I've been wondering (again) why the soul, or bits of the soul, are so inclined to leave the body and get stuck in other realms. it must be true - pretty much every region of the earth has soul retrieval as part of their cultural history. There is some kind of larger truth underlying all the conjuring to bring back souls.
So I start with Rilke. Why not??
this is a beautiful poem, Reya.
thats just beautiful reya, thankyou, i'll be re-reading and thinking about it all weekend.
i love the "make big shadows i can move in"...
I love that part, too, Lettuce!
what an exciting poem!! follow your passions, go, jump off that diving board (sorry, too much Olympics) and I'll help you be your wildest, biggest, givingest, livingest self.
"let everything happen to you...beauty and terror. Just keep going" is something Pema Chodron would say, although not in German.
Just keep going. Keep living your truth and whatever animates you (beside Me).
If you can take the heaviness of life lightly (no contradiction), take its seriousness with a sense of humor, this poem is just bowling right down the middle of the alley of what is, and is neither ponderous nor ominous, but luminous.
something wonderful about reading something with some gravity amid the lightness of late August...thank you!!
Lucy, you are welcome!
Hi Reya, I am German, and I LOVE Rilke. He was one who understood life. All the sadness... Do you know Der Panther? Or his autumn poem: Herr, es ist Zeit... I feel like crying every time I read it.
I am glad he has fans in other parts of the world.
I think I`m becoming a fan of you, too!
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