December 2, 2011

In Your Sight

Still Life with Italian Earthenware Jar

I want to unfold.
Let no place in me hold itself closed,
for when I am closed, I am false.
I want to stay clear in your sight.

The Book of Hours I, 13

3 comments:

  1. There is much depth in these few words, this notion of unfolding from the false self to that which is clear or pure in a universal or metaphysical sense. I must also say that I can never read anything about closing and unfolding without remembering those words from an e.e. cummings poem that has long been imprinted upon my memory:

    "your slightest look easily will unclose me
    though I have closed myself as fingers,
    you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
    (touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

    or if your wish be to close me, I and
    my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
    as when the heart of this flower imagines
    the snow carefully everywhere descending."

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  2. Wonderful addition, George. I find so much to like in cummings's work. This is a great example of how Rilke's words can be reimagined.

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  3. i want to stay clear in your sight

    and

    i want you to stay clear in mine.

    for me the second is more important, i think.

    xo
    erin

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"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Go ahead, bloom recklessly!