delara, interrupted

This is for Sina's benefit as well - we were talking about Rainer Maria Rilke yesterday and it inspired me to pull out my stash of his books again and just soak it all in - perhaps unstick my "stuck"ness and get the pen ink flowing again. I cannot fully express the effect that his words have on me - it is as though my soul is called forth. To say it inspires me doesn't quite capture the fullness of my experience. And so, Sina, as you write you might find Rilke's words resonate for you as well. Here's a sampling of what this amazing 28 year old wrote at the turn of the 20th century (early 1900s):

From "Letters to a Young Poet":

February 17, 1903
"...Things are not all so comprehensible and expressible as one would mostly have us believe; most events are inexpressible, taking place in a realm which no word has ever entered, and more inexpressible than all else are works of art, mysterious existences, the life of which, while ours passes away, endures."

"Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write."

April 5, 1903
"...Of course you must know that every letter of yours will always give me pleasure, and only bear with the answer which will perhaps often leave you empty-handed; for at bottom, and just in the deepest and most important things, we are unutterably alone, and for one person to be able to advise or even help another, a lot must happen, a lot must go well, a whole constellation of things must come right in order once to succeed."

May 14, 1904
"...To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation."

Aaaaaaaaaahhhh. I can go on living now. And even perhaps write again.

Cheers, my friend!