I chose this poem by Rilke to celebrate National Poetry Month. What a stunning evocation of incomprehensible faith, and a deep homage to our beloved Earth.
All Will Come Again Into Its Strength
All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.
And no churches
where God is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering in all relations,
and in you and me.
No yearning for an afterlife,
no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth,
lest we remain unused.
Rainer Maria Rilke, from Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God,
translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy.
For educational/therapeutic purposes only.
Image: Working the land, 1873, Paul Gauguin
Go Deeper: What does faith mean to you? In what do you place your deepest faith during both times of darkness and light?
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