Thursday, December 3, 2020

breath

 

    Breath, you invisible poem! 
    Pure, continuous exchange
    with all that is, flow and counterflow
    where rhythmically I come to be.
    
    Each time a wave that occurs just once
    in a sea I discover I am.
    You, innermost of oceans,
    you, infinitude of space.
    
    How many far places were once
    within me. Some winds
    are like my own child.
    
    When I breathe them now, do they know me again?
    Air, you silken surround,
    completion and seed of my words.
    
    
    
    
    
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    Sonnets to Orpheus
    Part Two I
    Trans. Anita Barrows & Joanna Macy
    Photo:  Peter Bowers