Tag Archives: Rainer Maria Rilke

A Shadow Falls, the Book Glows

As we enter a season of darkness, this Rilke poem reminds us to listen for the numinous.

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On Friday 13 and Black Cats

A post on Friday 13 and black cats, with thoughts on Poe and a Rilke cat poem.

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Mary Magdalene as Jesus’s Lover

In Rilke’s “Pieta,” Mary Magdalene cradles the crucified Christ as a lover.

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On Proust and Living Life to the Fullest

As I read Proust’s “Swann’s Way,” I imagined what it must have meant to a friend, who read it when he was dying.

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What Shines Now in the Dark of Night?

Rilke’s “Birth of Christ” emphasizes the simplicity of the moment.

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Your Shadow Makes This Book Glow

Rilke’s “You Come and Go” finds different ways to imagine God.

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Circling around God, the Primordial Tower

Rilke’s short but powerful “I live my life in widening circles” expands mind and spirit.

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Jesus: Like a Sage Resolved to His End

Rilke’s poem about da Vinci’s “Last Supper” helps us see the painting anew.

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Shafts of Golden Light

Easter Sunday For Easter I offer up two April poems that work as a before and after. First, Rainer Maria Rilke speaks of the “slumbering silence” before everything bursts into flower. Then William Carlos William describes that bursting as almost too much to bear. First the breathless anticipation, then the flowering. In the Rilke poem, […]

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