When Something Falls from a Window
(Even the Smallest Thing)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
How the law of gravity
strong as an ocean current
brings to bay each ball and berry
and carries them to the navel of the world.
Each stone, blossom, and child
is guarded by a grace
ready for flight.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we belong to
into empty space.
If we surrendered
to the earth's intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.
Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making,
namelessly alone
outside each circle.
We must begin again
to learn from things,
like children, because they are
in God's heart. They never left him.
This is what things can teach us: to fall,
to patiently trust our weightiness.
Even a bird must do that
before it can fly.
strong as an ocean current
brings to bay each ball and berry
and carries them to the navel of the world.
Each stone, blossom, and child
is guarded by a grace
ready for flight.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we belong to
into empty space.
If we surrendered
to the earth's intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.
Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making,
namelessly alone
outside each circle.
We must begin again
to learn from things,
like children, because they are
in God's heart. They never left him.
This is what things can teach us: to fall,
to patiently trust our weightiness.
Even a bird must do that
before it can fly.
Almond Trees in Blossom
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Almond trees in blossom: all we can
do here is recognize our own earthly appearance
that leaves no trace.
I’m always amazed at you, happy ones, at your demeanor,
at how you wear the ephemeral ornament with eternal sense.
Oh, if only we knew how to blossom: our heart would rise above
every small danger and find peace in the greatest danger of all.
do here is recognize our own earthly appearance
that leaves no trace.
I’m always amazed at you, happy ones, at your demeanor,
at how you wear the ephemeral ornament with eternal sense.
Oh, if only we knew how to blossom: our heart would rise above
every small danger and find peace in the greatest danger of all.
I Love the Dark Hours of My Being
by Rainer Maria Rilke
I love the dark hours of my being.
My senses deepen into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life
already lived and read
like a story, and understood.
They come with the knowing
I can open to another life
that is wide and limitless.
So I am sometimes like a tree
rustling over a grave,
making real the dream of the one
its living roots hold tight:
a dream once lost in anguish and song.
My senses deepen into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life
already lived and read
like a story, and understood.
They come with the knowing
I can open to another life
that is wide and limitless.
So I am sometimes like a tree
rustling over a grave,
making real the dream of the one
its living roots hold tight:
a dream once lost in anguish and song.
