Final January Small Stone–Jan. 31, 2014

Posted on January 31, 2014 by quillfyre

The final January reading from A Year with Rilke is titled The One Who Is Coming, which, once again I found on the blog, A Year with Rilke, from 2011. Thank you to Lorenzo and Ruth for their postings that gave me a way to share many of the readings with everyone who reads my small stones.

My stone for today was inspired partly by Rilke, but, especially for my ModPo friends, I also included a little bit of Emily Dickinson here.

Jan. 31, 2014

–Do you not see how all that is happening is ever again a new beginning?
from “The One Who Is Coming”, Letters to a Young Poet, Rome, Dec. 23, 1903 A Year with Rilke

Each day begins and all
is possibility, hours stretched
with hope and good intention.

Each blank page calls for its companions,
words of the poet, each rising above
the lesser words of yesterday.

Shall we not move forward then
with eagerness and passion—
for today, for life, for— THIS—?
–CAS

Astronomical Clock (Astronomical Dial), Prague, Czech Republic (Photo credit: Grufnik)

Small stone for Jan. 30, 2014

Posted on January 30, 2014 by quillfyre

And just one more day to go in this January challenge. It has been an interesting and challenging one for sure as I struggle at times with Rilke‘s work and its religious aspects. Today’s poem is from New Poems, A Year with Rilke: Alone.

Jan. 30, 2014

..Of my heart I will make a tower
and stand on its very edge,
where nothing else exists— Rilke, New Poems, A Year with Rilke

Even now, I shelter where
I’m safe, where fear has always
held me far from the unknown.

My knees weaken at the edge

of real or imagined precipice,
‘til I pull back and turn away.

Every decade missed chances
never returning. Only the wonder,
Is this the last time to take the forward step?

–CAS

Small Stone for Jan. 15, 2014

Posted on January 15, 2014 by quillfyre

Letters to a young poet (credit: Xpectro)

For January 15, A Year with Rilke again shares a passage from Letters to a Young Poet, Paris, Feb. 17, 1903.

Rilke advises the young poet that as he “unfolds as an artist”to keep “growing through all that happens to you.” He then tells him that looking outside oneself for answers is a violent disruption to the process, and that answers lie within ourselves.