6

from Selected Poems of RAINER MARIA RILKE



I have faith in all those things that are not yet said.
I want to set free my most holy feelings.
What no one has dared to want
will be for me impossible to refuse.

If that is presumption, then, my God, forgive me.
However, I want to tell you this one thing:
I want my best strength to be like a shoot,
with no anger and no timidity, as a shoot is;
this is the way the children love you.

With these ebbing tides, with these mouths
opening their deltas into the open sea,
with these returns, that keep growing,
I want to acknowledge you, I want to announce you,
as no one ever has before.

And if that is arrogance, then I will stay arrogant
for the sake of my prayer,
that is so sincere and solitary
standing before your cloudy forehead.

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So...this is my take on it:

What is my faith like? I love the passion in this poem, this desire to give of oneself, not the 10% in order to meet the requirement...but full on...only out of love and passion. To give and not regret, to go way overboard and not even think for a moment what others would think, what others would say, what others will do, or how we will be treated because of it. What is a relationship that is there out of requirement, or discipline alone? What is a love that no longer has any feeling? There is only one thing that that will give, it will give the appearance of love, but that love has vanished and now been gone for way too long.

How do I want to love my God, give me undignified...what do I have to loose? All that I could loose: myself. But what is so pretty about that anyway? What is worth my sacrifice? What is worth my love? Wait! Thats not right... all my sacrifice, all my love is worth nothing...but He picks it up and blasts me away with what he gives to me instead. He loves my rawness. How could I not become undignified...I have so much to loose.