September 23, 2011

The God That Is Coming

Corridor in Saint-Paul Hospital

You too will find your strength.
We who must live in this time
cannot imagine how strong you will become—
how strange, how surprising,
yet familiar as yesterday.

We will sense you
like a fragrance from a nearby garden
and watch you more through our days
like a shaft of sunlight in a sickroom.

We are cradled close in your hands—
and lavishly flung forth.

From The Book of Hours II, 26

1 comment:

  1. Boy is this resonant for me ... Wonderful to see Rilke getting the sense that his faith would evolve past the shambles of the embered Catholocism of his youth -- that a cathedral would provide the scaffolding of the Next, something he would articulate all of his life find in perfect repose in the recklessly bloomin' rose.

    ...We who must live in this time
    cannot imagine how strong you will become—


    Amen! - Brendan

    ReplyDelete

"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!