sonnets to orpheus

Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be grey and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne,
becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.


...reminded lately of my great love for Rilke. Some poems catch your breath and needle into your heart. The book with this poem fell off the shelf onto this page while I was packing. It has been sitting in my pocket for a few days now.
Enjoy the weather this weekend. Become the wind....
(sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII by Rainier Maria Rilke - Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)