Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Carrying Wind and Open Spaces

I give you these lines from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke:


Don't be afraid to suffer, give
the heaviness back to the weight of the earth;
mountains are heavy, seas are heavy.

Even those trees you planted as children
became too heavy long ago -- you couldn't carry them now.
But you can carry the winds . . . and the open spaces . . .



[Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Robert Bly]

1 comment:

  1. falling into a heaviness of its own
    temporarily far from me
    the weight lifts from where it is planted
    i fall free

    forcing even my lids to lay still
    as i allow, my arms slide down, settle
    i think of the sleep which alludes me

    faintly the remembered wind whispers
    my name with the soul quieting
    sounds of stillness
    it gently touches flutteringly with its caress
    across my salt streaked cheeks and
    as i allow it, the space opens to me

    even from yesterday and before tomorrow
    god's lips blow breath far into my future
    carrying me from the weight of the day
    and whispering comfort to me even now
    he lifts from me my mountain, my seas
    as i lay still in this weightless moment
    i carry the wind

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