teenybooks

i am much too alone in this world, yet…

In Uncategorized on 27 July 2008 with 7 comments

I’ve been reading a large amount of Rilke lately, which happens in phases. I pick it up and find myself so completely in grossed with his words its easy to spend hours lying in bed reading each poem two or three times. I always want to share it…maybe beneath a Sycamore tree in prospect park one spring:

I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone
enough
to truly consecrate the hour.
I am much too small in this world, yet not small
enough
to be to you just object and thing,
dark and smart.
I want my free will and want it accompanying
the path which leads to action;
and want during times that beg questions,
where something is up,
to be among those in the know,
or else be alone.

I want to mirror your image to its fullest perfection,
never be blind or too old
to uphold your weighty wavering reflection.
I want to unfold.
Nowhere I wish to stay crooked, bent;
for there I would be dishonest, untrue.
I want my conscience to be
true before you;
want to describe myself like a picture I observed
for a long time, one close up,
like a new word I learned and embraced,
like the everday jug,
like my mother’s face,
like a ship that carried me along
through the deadliest storm

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