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"You see, I want a lot" ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Perhaps I want everything:

the darkness that comes with every infinite fall

and the shimmering blaze of every step up.

 

So many live on and want nothing,

and are raised to the rank of prince

by the slippery ease of their light judgments.

 

But what you love to see are faces

that do work and feel thirst.

 

You love most of all those who need you

as they need a crowbar or a ***

 

You have not grown old, and it is not too late

to dive into your increasing depths

where life calmly gives out its own secret.

 

*Rainer Maria Rilke / The Book of the Hours

(translated by Robert Bly: German)*

 

 

 

 

S T, 20 July 2013

Request permission to use this poem
Written by
st64
Published
Jul 20, 2013
Lines·Words
16·118
Notes

love this poem ...so touching :)

sub: 'your eyes'

my child, my child

1.

crying beside long stalks of sugarcane

flat on the mudfloor

next to worn baskets in the corner

heart rent

never will I see your eyes

open again

your little brother watches me:

he sees his father on knees

and arms to the sky

raging in snot-rivulets and loud tears

while your mother tends to all else

she cannot afford to spill now

the other babies need to be fed and changed

2.

she carries her pain inside

as she always does

later she will scrub it out in the laundry

        and pound it in the corn

        and wring it from the wet clothes

        and sweep

fling it to the sky

*my child, my child

what did they do?

what have they given you?*

3.

I sent you off on your journey

not ever thinking that

I never would see your eyes

again

now I tear my hair

and gouge my eyes

I bare my soul

and ask...why??

4.

dried tears leave ashen lines

as a warm flood spills

fresh

hot lament on cheeks

I touch your young face

so serene ...eternally serene  

I would knee-walk eternal

on rusty nails and toxic cans

if I could see your eyes once more

but the time has come:

your mother comes to wash you

one last time

*never will I see your eyes

again

your beautiful

life-giving eyes

again*

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