Continued:

"I continue to hold to the idea that speaking words of #beauty reminds us of the possibility of language.

And especially in weeks when we hear the impoverishment of speech from many quarters, it is good to bask in something uplifting, to remind us of the power of language to do that most risky thing: to make something new.

So, here by #RainerMariaRilke is poem 59, Book I:

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

I.59, translated by Joanna Macey & Anita Burrows & collected in their Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (Riverhead Books, 2005)

Vulnerable language can help us find space to address the threats in our lives. ... From where I am, I try to do my bit to address the frailties of the human condition with courage rather than rage. May we be nurtured by the kind of presence that gave rise to Rilke’s language."

#PádraigÓTuama

https://poetryunbound.substack.com/p/courage-and-rage-re-sending-now-open

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