Ever turned toward what we create, we see in it
only reflections of the Open, darkened by us.
Except when an animal silently looks at us through and through.
This is our fate: to stand
in our own way. Forever
in the way.
Rilke
From the Eighth Duino Elegy (see link below for source)
This poem sounds fatalistic, but I think only because we so often do stand in our own way. Yet getting out of the way in any individual moment is a very real possibility. We just need to be awake. Being awake in one moment reinforces the possibility of increased wakeful and attentive moments in the future.
A Year with Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke
, translated and edited by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows. NewYork: HarperCollins. 2009.
