Sunday, July 19, 2009

letters to a young poet

Excerpt from Letter 4 of "Letters to a Young Poet" by R.M. Rilke

"My dear Mr. Kappus: ...Here, where I am surrounded by an enormous landscape, which the winds move across as they come from the seas, here I feel that there is no one anywhere who can answer for you those questions and feelings which, in their depths, have a life of their own; for even the most articulate people are unable to help, since what words point to is so very delicate, is almost unsayable. But even so, I think that you will not have to remain without a solution if you trust in Things that are like the ones my eyes are now resting upon. If you trust in Nature, in the small Things that hardly anyone sees and that can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable; if you have this love for what is humble and try very simply, as someone who serves, to win the confidence of what seems poor: then everything will become easier for you, more coherent and somehow more reconciling, not in your conscious mind perhaps, which stays behind, astonished, but in your innermost awareness, awakeness, and knowledge. You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.
Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. Perhaps you do carry within you the possibility of creating and forming, as an especially blessed and pure way of living; train yourself for that - but take whatever comes, with great trust, and as long as it comes out of your will, out of some need of your innermost self, then take it upon yourself, and don't hate anything."

"Letters to a Young Poet", written by poet Ranier Maria Rilke at the turn of the century, was a correspondence with a 19-year-old Franz Kappus. Although Rilke received many letters, in Kappus, he saw a young man with similar circumstances-both were pressured to enter the same military academy and both were subject to the same pressures to abandon their creativity. The result was a 5 year correspondence in which Rilke shared his insights on living the creative life. This blog post is in response to a discussion that arose at dinner with a dear friend who is struggling with his creative purpose. When I became a mother and found that I had to go to great lengths to stay creative, I asked myself, "Is this really neccessary? Is it worth all the trouble? Why must I do this?" I spent so much time contemplating the questions that my art eventually disappeared and became something I used to do. What did not disappear, however, was the faint voice calling me to it and the feeling that something was amiss. I find that I still ask myself these questions, but that I need not stop the creative process. I trust that the answers will not come next month or even in 10 years, but that they will come if I heed to the calling of the creative soul-home.
Read all 10 of R.M. Rilke's letters here.


2 comments:

  1. hey... THIS BOOK IS ONE OF MY FAVE... I got so much validation and insight... being an artist... from Rilke and his correspondence.
    everything i do- despite not having time or focus- comes from being an artist. i cannot deny myself of who i am... the most inane, silly task like preparing food for Lennox, comes from a place of creativity and art... wait till i make clothes for him... not halloween costumes, but pants... ha! he's a lucky son of a gun!

    see ya soon!
    r

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  2. thanks for checking it out! i'm trying to keep it up while i'm out here. having this time with io has been such a blessing. i have so much time to spend with her doing creative things together instead of separately.
    can't wait to see you guys in my city!
    ~j9

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