Lifting my eyes from the book, from the tightly sequenced lines
to the full and perfect night:
Oh how like the stars my buried feelings break free,
as if a bouquet of wildflowers
had come untied:
The upswing of the light ones, the bowing sway of the heavy ones
and the delicate ones’ timid curve.
Everywhere joy in relation and nowhere grasping;
world in abundance and earth enough.
— Rilke, Uncollected Poems
i’ve always known that there was someone named rilke who wrote about the spiritual magic that floats through life , and who expressed this with profound lightness and without dogma or corneyness. i don’t kow anything about this poet, but you site permits me to gradually learn his thoughts in a simple manner. it reminds me of being unemployed for a summer in ’99 and spending my time reading Rumi in parks in toronto with coffee and cigarettes and not a care in the world. i felt uplifted and open without feeling fooled. thanks
Paul — I’m glad to hear you appreciate the site. Coincidentally, transposing poems and quotes here somewhat reminds me of being unemployed, the summer after college graduation, when I too felt free and open and was uplifted by every book that crossed my path. It’s perhaps this floating memory which I am attempting to reflect and which informs the spirit of my Floating Library.