You Who Never Arrived
You who never arrived In my arms, Beloved, who were lost From the start, I don’t even know what songs Would please you. I have given up trying To recognize you in the surging
What Fields Are As Fragrant As Your Hands?
What fields are as fragrant as your hands? You feel how external fragrance stands Upon your stronger resistance. Stars stand in images above. Give me your mouth to soften, love; Ah, your hair is
Again And Again, However We Know The Landscape Of Love
Again and again, however we know the landscape of love And the little churchyard there, with its sorrowing names, And the frighteningly silent abyss into which the others Fall: again and again the two
The Swan
This laboring through what is still undone, As though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way, Is like the akward walking of the swan. And dying-to let go, no longer feel The solid ground
For Hans Carossa
Losing too is still ours; and even forgetting Still has a shape in the kindgdom of transformation. When something’s let go of, it circles; and though we are rarely the center Of the circle,
Going Blind
She sat just like the others at the table. But on second glance, she seemed to hold her cup A little differently as she picked it up. She smiled once. It was almost painful.
World Was In The Face Of The Beloved
World was in the face of the beloved, But suddenly it poured out and was gone: World is outside, world can not be grasped. Why didn’t I, from the full, beloved face As I
The Last Supper
They are assembled, astonished and disturbed Round him, who like a sage resolved his fate, And now leaves those to whom he most belonged, Leaving and passing by them like a stranger. The loneliness
The Sonnets To Orpheus: XXV
But you now, dear girl, whom I loved like a flower whose name I didn’t know, you who so early were taken away: I will once more call up your image and show it
The Sisters
Look how the same possibilities Unfold in their opposite demeanors, As though one saw different ages Passing through two identical rooms. Each thinks that she props up the other, While resting wearily on her
As Once The Winged Energy Of Delight
As once the winged energy of delight Carried you over childhood’s dark abysses, Now beyond your own life build the great Arch of unimagined bridges. Wonders happen if we can succeed In passing through
The Sonnets To Orpheus: Book 2: XXIII
Call to me to the one among your moments That stands against you, ineluctably: Intimate as a dog’s imploring glance But, again, forever, turned away When you think you’ve captured it at last. What
Lament (Whom will you cry to, heart?)
Whom will you cry to, heart? More and more lonely, Your path struggles on through incomprehensible Mankind. All the more futile perhaps For keeping to its direction, Keeping on toward the future, Toward what
Before Summer Rain
Suddenly, from all the green around you, Something-you don’t know what-has disappeared; You feel it creeping closer to the window, In total silence. From the nearby wood You hear the urgent whistling of a
You, You Only, Exist
You, you only, exist. We pass away, till at last, Our passing is so immense That you arise: beautiful moment, In all your suddenness, Arising in love, or enchanted In the contraction of work.