Poem of the moment

[hummingwolf]

A real one this time, from Rainer Maria Rilke.

How surely gravity's law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
Each thing--
each stone, blossom, child--
is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we each belong to
for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered
to earth's intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves.
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.

So, like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God's heart;
they have never left him.

This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our own heaviness
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.

Comments

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Yep. I was looking for a different Rilke poem I vaguely remembered from college, then ran across this one which seduced me into posting it.