Thursday, July 01, 2010

Thursday Poem - In Praise of Mortality

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 gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself out 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.

Rainer Maria Rilke, In Praise of Mortality
The Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII
(translated and edited by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)

2 comments:

Delphyne said...

And Daphne, becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.

I just love that! And your picture is beautiful.

Happy Canada Day, Cate!

the wild magnolia said...

I should be "dared" to become the wind. I shall carry this in my heart today.

Lovely Rilke at his best!

Happy Canada Day.

Sublime photography and subject.