Friday, December 27, 2013

Probe the depths


Probe the depths

from which your
life springs..
This Rilke's advice
To the young poet..
So we probe
Looking for tools
For our reach
To those places..
Those happy times
Seem to float
Uplift without the
Probe we wish..

A downdraft may
More utility gain..
Stumbling mistakes
Clouded passages
Some of which
We still flee..
Yet with intent
Courageous grasp
A sudden surge
Brings us close
To the answers
We are advised
To seek…



My only advice for you is this. Go within yourself and probe the depths from which your life springs, and there at its source you'll find the answer to the question of whether you must write. Accept this answer, just as you hear it, without hesitation. It may be revealed that you are called to be an artist. Then take this lot upon you, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without asking for any external reward. For the creative artist must be a world for himself, and find everything within himself—and in nature, to which he is devoted.

Paris, February 17, 1903
Letters to a Young Poet

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