Sunday, the Day Before Monday (an Email by Barry Morgan)
I cannot say that there are many folks to whom I e-mail poetry. Maybe it is because you were an English major that I feel it ok to do so to you. Anyway, in thinking about writing to you this morning the roulette wheel in my mind landed on this.
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The Swan
This laboring through what is still undone,
as though, legs bound, we hobbled along the way,
is like the awkward walking of the swan.And dying-to let go, no longer feel
the solid ground we stand on every day-
is like anxious letting himself fallinto waters, which receive him gently
and which, as though with reverence and joy,
draw back past him in streams on either side;
while, infinitely silent and aware,
in his full majesty and ever more
indifferent, he condescends to glide.-Rainer Maria Rilke
Rock on and have a great Sunday.
-b
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Note from jb: b sent this email to me on Sunday August 8, 2010 at 8:33 AM EST. He sent it in response to what I am about to tell you tomorrow. And while we had never discussed it . . . it turns out that Rilke happens to be one of my most favoritist writers of all time. b tells me that Stephen Mitchell translates here. Enjoy.
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Rich thanks for the comment. and b’s selection here – I guess he knows me better than I know. (I think we simply have that sort of connection.) I too have always been infatuated with this idea of fluidity, and while we constantly seek this balance to never really obtain it (on the phone talking about it with Mike Hines @eXapath yesterday afternoon) . . . Rilke and then I guess b here in picking it suggests that there must be an element of letting go — which will bring you closer to actually knowing it. Or at least that’s where my head is right now…and I read this piece like 3 times out loud. . . today’s mantra maybe. great day sir and may the force be with you. jb
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Nice poem. I especially liked the opening line about “this labouring through what is still undone.” That really struck me. This poem and ensuing conversation reminds me a bit of the surfing post a short while back — same basic theme of letting go in order to best realize or experience something. Also especially enjoyed Rich’s commentary, which was really spot-on.
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I don’t think I gave mr. rich his just due in my reply above — he certainly sees things like few other people do. . . and I guess I will spill it — b I think in this case was suggesting that I (jb) am the swan –> as you’ll see in tomorrow’s post. . . maybe the fitting end of a triology. thanks for the comment john – and I do love this poem.
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I am drawn as the swan to the bouyant embrace of water, as an analogy for life as well as in comforting physical reality. Sometimes I find myself separated from my liquid home and exchange the metaphor for that of soaring through the air. These mental shifts settle my preoccupied, cluttered mind and lend enough support to lift me beyond the mundane nitpicky details to a place where I can see with perspective and clarity.
Walking on the ground is often an exercise in stumbling, eyes focused on the bumps and dips in the twisting path before me. Branches reach out from the flanks, stones roll beneath your step, precipices fall away on your side. It is difficult to see the horizon for the demands of the moment. Learning to walk with grace, perhaps by crawling first (four-legged stability…), keeping one’s head high and one’s feet light and assured, is a skill I am growing toward; I will always have the comfort of water in which to be suspended and to teach me how to flow.