{"id":6779,"date":"2020-04-28T07:08:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T14:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6779"},"modified":"2020-04-28T07:10:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T14:10:15","slug":"rainer-maria-rilke-i-find-you-lord-in-all-things-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/28\/rainer-maria-rilke-i-find-you-lord-in-all-things-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainer Maria Rilke – I find you, Lord, in all Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

I find you, Lord, in all Things
\nby Rainer Maria Rilke<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Stephen Mitchell<\/font><\/p>\n

I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all
\nmy fellow creatures, pulsing with your life;
\nas a tiny seed you sleep in what is small
\nand in the vast you vastly yield yourself.<\/p>\n

The wondrous game that power plays with Things
\nis to move in such submission through the world:
\ngroping in roots and growing thick in trunks
\nand in treetops like a rising from the dead.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke<\/a>, Translated by Stephen Mitchell<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Ben Fredericson<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

This is a poem I have featured before, but I found myself reading it this morning and decided that it was a good one to share with you again\u2026<\/p>\n

and in the vast you vastly yield yourself.<\/i><\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that a magical line? In the second verse Rilke is really saying something of deep insight about about what real power is:<\/p>\n

The wondrous game that power plays with Things
\nis to move in such submission through the world\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

The \u201cpower\u201d he is talking about is obviously not power over, not the domination of the warlord or the predator. Following on his first verse, we can read power as the power of the \u201cLord, in all Things.\u201d It is the power of life itself, awareness, presence. Rilke\u2019s use of the word \u201cpower,\u201d makes us question the assumptions of common language: Perhaps this gentle presence is real power, rather than the fleeting assertion of force and fear.<\/p>\n

This real power plays a game in the world of things. It expresses its power through submission, rather than control. Like water, it yields and so finds its destination. It allows, and so fulfills its purpose. It is supremely humble, and so is humbly present everywhere, in all things, without prejudice or rejection. It rises from the lowest to the highest, vivifying everything it touches\u2013<\/p>\n

groping in roots and growing thick in trunks
\nand in treetops like a rising from the dead.<\/i><\/p>\n

This power flowing through us and all our \u201cfellow creatures\u201d binds us all with the same life. You\u2019ll notice, it is not even our life at all. Rilke says \u201cyour life,\u201d the Lord\u2019s life. It is something we participate in, a current we ride as it flows through us and the world, but it is not our own. Rilke is hinting at a larger vision in which there is only one Life flowing through a million \u201cThings.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hildegard von Bingen, the great medieval mystic, called this the viriditas<\/i> or greening power of God.<\/p>\n

Too much of our relationship with the natural world is built on ideas of separation and domination. Such foolishness can only ever harm us. When we see clearly, we see as Rilke does that we are part of the same shared Life. To harm the natural world is to rebel against God. Is that language too religiously loaded? Reread Rilke\u2019s poem, and then think about it.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Rainer Maria Rilke<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nAhead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Soul is Here for its Own Joy: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nRilke\u2019s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nIn Praise of Mortality: Rilke\u2019s Duino Elegies & Sonnets to Orpheus<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Rainer<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nRainer Maria Rilke<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Germany (1875 \u2013 1926) Timeline<\/a>
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

More poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I find you, Lord, in all Things by Rainer Maria Rilke English version by Stephen Mitchell I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all my fellow creatures, pulsing with your life; as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small and in the vast you vastly yield yourself. The wondrous game that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1611,1445,70,1851,1852],"class_list":["post-6779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-power","tag-presence","tag-rainer-maria-rilke","tag-submission","tag-yielding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6781,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6779\/revisions\/6781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}