Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower

By Rainer Maria Rilke

Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.

Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29

Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

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Another Sunday with sunlight and warming.  Today I we will reach fifty degrees and then drop into a deep freeze for the coming week.  Life is like that too.  There’s change.

Rilke writes to the point.  Let this darkness be a bell tower and you — the bell.  And ring we shall.  There’s nothing else but ringing.  He advises, pay attention to the ringing.  What is today’s ringing like?  Dare I be the mystery at the crossroads of my senses?  What meaning may I discover here and now?

If night is uncontainable…

If the world has ceased to hear…

Say to the silent earth, to the flowing water…

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This tune by Starship is what we need.