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 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.
Excerpted from Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
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This is what I have been meditating on for the last month or so…sent this poem to friends for the holidays…
This is my favorite Rilke poem and my most beloved poem of all time.
I love this poem of Rilke. I found it by reading the children’s book Flora and Ulysses by the talented Kate DiCamillo.