#rrilke

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by Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours

I am, you timid one. Do you not hear How my longing is washing against your ear? my feelings, which grew angels’ wings, encircle you like down.

Do you not see my soul as it comes up to you in its gown? Does not my springtime prayer in degrees ripen by my looking up?

If you are the dreamer, then I am the dream. Yet if you wanted to stay awake, I would be your will and would take charge of all your majesty and curl up like the stillness of stars over this city called time.

[explore-chat]

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

by Rainer Maria Rilke

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.

Book of Hours, I 59

(via On Being)

[explore-chat]

Widening Circles

by Rainer M. Rilke

I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give myself to it. I circle around God, around the primordial tower. I've been circling for thousands of years and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song. The Book of Hours I, 2