June 28, 2011

Gathering God

Man is at Sea, by Vincent van Gogh

The poets have scattered you.
A storm ripped through the stammering.
I want to gather you up again
in a vessel that makes you glad.

I wander in the thousand winds
that you are churning,
and bring back everything I find.

The blind man needed you as a cup.
The servant concealed you.
The beggar held you out as I passed.

You see, I am one who likes to look for things.

The Book of Hours I, 55

5 comments:

  1. Oh my.

    Oh yes.

    Gathering God from the scattered bits, from the past and present, from all the plates and cups. All the needing, all the giving, the essence in all absence and presence.

    What a mind, and heart.

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  2. I know this is about Rilke but I have never seen so many unfamiliar Van Goghs. It's wonderful!

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  3. i was surprised at first that the poets had scattered him. i had thought it was the poets that were coming in from the fields with him tied in bundles strung to their backs. i had thought the poets were gathering him. ah, but he is too large. he is too large. the field in fact does curve out beyond the horizon.

    xo
    erin

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"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Go ahead, bloom recklessly!