 Poetry: November 15, 2017 Issue [#8598] |
  Poetry
This week: Advice of a Master Poet: Rilke Edited by: eyestar~*  
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 Greetings poets! While the novelists are busy in NanoWRImo land, perhaps we can wane philosophical and take a note from one of my favourite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke! I was recently rereading his "Letters to a Young Poet", and was reminded of one line of wisdom I appreciated from his "Book of Hours."
“I am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough
to make every moment holy.
I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough
just to lie before you like a thing,
shrewd and secretive.
I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will,
as it goes toward action;
and in those quiet, sometimes hardly moving times,
when something is coming near,
I want to be with those who know secret things
or else alone.
I want to be a mirror for your whole body,
and I never want to be blind, or to be too old
to hold up your heavy and swaying picture.
I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere,
because where I am folded, there I am a lie.
and I want my grasp of things to be
true before you. I want to describe myself
like a painting that I looked at
closely for a long time,
like a saying that I finally understood,
like the pitcher I use every day,
like the face of my mother,
like a ship
that carried me
through the wildest storm of all.”
This book is not his poetry but he writes responses to a young poet who sought his advice so it gives a glimpse into his life at this time and his nuggets of wisdom. He praises the need for solitude, nature, indepth self reflection to find your own voice and if it's demand that you must write or not.
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 Rainer Maria Rilke (4 December 1875–29 December 1926) was a German poet and novelist, writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose."
He had unhappy childhood and pressured to stay in Military Academy, which did not suit his poetic artistic nature. He left early due to illness went on to university where he studied literature, art history and philosophy. He travelled to places like Greece, Paris and even Russia. He had one love relationship in 1897-1900 with Lou Andreas-Salome but his required solitude and space as an artist, did not suit committed relationship.
When he was 28, he recieved a letter from Franz Kappus, a student at the same Academy he had attended. Franz was a budding poet and was seeking advice on his own attempts at poetry. He had read Rilke and was thrilled he had been at the same school. Over 5 years from 1903 to 1908, they communicated and thanks to Kappus, we have 10 of those personal letters in which Rilke shares his life, struggles and comments in a sincere, humble manner.
Many Poets have been inspired by his truth and he was often sought out for advice. He would share his own processes and encourage poets to find and trust their own. His writing is humble and almost seems like he is talking to his younger self as he struggled with the "calling of a poet" as he sat in those school rooms. They focus on the inner life of an artist, which can be a lonely journey.
From his "Letters to a Young Poet" these are a few ideas, well worth quoting, that appealed to me when I began writing and still ponder today.
1. Go Within and dig deep!
“I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist.”
"“Draw near to nature. Pretend you are the very first man and then write what you see and experience, what you love and lose.”
 I had to laugh at one comment he made about not complaining if our life is small and nothing to write about.
"Do not complain to life, but to yourself! Lament that you are not poet enough to call up its wealth. For the creative artist there is no poverty--nothing is insignificant.."
Sometimes I do look for bigger things when really simplicity and what is present is rich in gold nuggets for the muse. 
2> Do not seek advice or compare to others.
Especially as a young poet finding his way, he felt that critique would not be helpful before one found his own voice. He also said that one would know from within when something is "good" .
"For you will hear in them your own voice; you will see in them a piece of your life, a natural possession of yours. A piece of art is good if it is born of necessity.”
3> Enjoy the great silence.
"Solitude, vast inner solitude-To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours — that is what you must be able to attain. To be solitary as you were when you were a child, when the grown-ups walked around involved with matters that seemed large and important because they looked so busy and because you didn’t understand a thing about what they were doing.”
I like this one and often return to that getting away from it all into nature...where I can find my self apart from all the noise and points of view of others. It assists me to remember to write what I KNOW--from my reality, that makes for deeper meaning. Rilke encoarages that as well... in the next step.
4> Write for yourself first. Write to know yourself. Write what you know!
Remember Shakespeare: To thine own self be true! 
5>Trust Yourself:
Following our own heart is important as we learn from experience. Rilke says if we choose not so well, life will show us and we will be better for it, It will enhance our art.
6> Be patient with self and process of life. We are evolving always.
Rilke himself struggled with health and relationships as he came to accept his need for the solitude and space as an artist. He had leukemia with bouts of depression, but he never abandoned his work.
7> Live your questions and not seek answers. Let them arise in the process of living and dwelling with the wonder.
"Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."
How many times I have been told this one--to get out of my head and open to more possibilities!  The heart may take a bet longer to speak until the ego mind lets go!
 Rilke was one of the first poets I studied in adulthood and his existential themes were appealing. I had read Stephen Mitchell's translations of his works before I found his book of letters which are well worth reading in their entirety, as he carries on with his notions of love, spirit and other themes as they relate to his life as an artist and how his experience evolved his work.
“Love consists of this: two solitudes that meet, protect and greet each other."
So, poets experienced and new, thanks for letting me share what inspires me! What do you know?
 Sources:
The quotes I used came from the book : Letters to a Young Poet, by RM Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell.
More of his quotes can be found here:
https://mariamsreads.wordpress.com/2015/10/09/advice-from-rilkes-letters-to-a-yo...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke
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