The man was not unlike himself
Standing, talking, gesturing,
Speaking of things already known,
Awakening them, though,
As if he had thrown a line around them,
Dragging them to the surface to be looked at –
Save the treasures, discard the rest.
"What more? What next?"
There was an answer in the net he cast –
It flopped like a fish, begging selection.
"Choice!"
In the myriad of choice,
Strewn across his mind
Like the stars in the night sky,
He had only to reach out and pluck one,
Any one,
And swallow it whole.
Is that what the man said?
Or was that what he had heard?
And is there any difference?
"Just listen" –
The voice called to him,
And hearing, he was moved -
Light across the dark.
"I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me so that what no one has dared to wish for may for once spring clear without my contriving.
If this is arrogant, God, forgive me, but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.
Then in these swelling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea.
~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~
