April 24, 2006: Autumn, Rainer Maria Rilke
Autumn
Rainer Maria Rilke
The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,
as if orchards were dying high in space.
Each leaf falls as if it were motioning “no.”
And tonight the heavy earth is falling
away from all other stars in the loneliness.
We’re all falling. This hand here is falling.
And look at the other one. It’s in them all.
And yet there is Someone, whose hands
infinitely calm, hold up all this falling.
translated by Robert Bly
[In contrast to yesterday’s poem — the weight of existence, life’s
difficulty met by God’s presence, rather than absence. I love how
gentle Rilke’s wording is, and the repetition of “falling,” how it
works on both the large and small scale, the heavy earth, and this
hand.]
A YEAR AGO TODAY: On Turning Ten, Billy Collins
