Today’s poem by Rilke is Not By Grasping, which you can read here: http://yearwithrilke.blogspot.ca/2011/01/not-by-grasping.html

In the poem Rilke says “To sing is to be. Easy for a god. But when do we simply be?”  

I’ve shared the link to the poem because there is so much to think about in a scant 14 line sonnet.  Unlike some of the passages so far, I had to think a long time before making my choice which lines to respond to. I’ve quoted the closing couplet as an epigram to my short poem here.

Jan. 16, 2014

Truly to sing takes another kind of breath.
A breath in the void. A shudder in God. A wind.  – Rilke

Some days the poems flow, words
tumble one over the next, as if they
come from somewhere beyond thought.

But as  I try to write the dark shadowed words—

Shadows in the late afternoon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

as thought turns inwards—

I become blind and mute. Today,
I stumble and tremble to sing my song.

–CAS

The Only Journey (Photo credit: Celestine Chua)