yesterday i picked up my thin copy of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, and it spoke to me. As with all things, not merely writing...about a dream...



"You're asking the wrong questions!] There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity….

…But after this descent into yourself and into your solitude, perhaps you will have to renounce becoming a poet (if, as I have said, one feels one could live without writing, then one shouldn’t write at all). Nevertheless, even then, this self-searching that I as of you will not have been for nothing. Your life will still find its own paths from there, and that they may be good, rich, and wide is what I wish for you, more than I can say...

...If you trust in Nature, in the small Things that hardly anyone sees and that can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable; if you have this love for what is humble and try very simply, as someone who serves, to win the confidence of what seems poor: then everything will become easier for you, more coherent and somehow more reconciling, not in your conscious mind perhaps, which stays behind, astonished, but in your innermost awareness, awakeness, and knowledge..."


Rainer Maria Rilke, Letter to a Young Poet

+ + +


my weaknesses are that i am unfocused. henceforth let me be distracted towards my goals... do we fear to take ourselves seriously for the fear of failure? i am terribly good at running away and landing myself into spirals of 'i told you so' to my unbelieving self. Rilke said, I forgot in what chapter - I will find that quote - something about not fearing anything in the world. if i were to fade away tomorrow, what would i do today? i know that boldness - i had it just after thesis...i knew it studying the arts in college...i knew it in my youth...and along the moments in life i think i felt that boldness again. it is a boldness that comes with a confidence and also a peace that comes with freedom. it shouldn't take too long, but i know i can capture that boldness and peace soon. i just have to be focused. when i am focused, i am powerful...

image source 1, image source 2