Random Act of Poetry

Well, hello, there. This is a random attack of poetry. And if you've known me since college, there's a very good chance you have been attacked by me before. Hopefully you already know that April is both Poetry Month and Jazz Month (and possible more?). When I took a poetry course in college, my professor, Max, required us to "attack" other classes in order to promote poetry. We had to knock, enter a classroom during the period, recite a poem, and leave as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The poem did not have to memorized and the professors had pre-approved which classes could be attacked - we pretty much avoided science and business classes.

I loved the concept so much that I starting send random attacks of poetry emails. And today an attack in blog form.

Today's poem is brought to you by Rainer Maria Rilke, one of my favorite German poets. I've included it in both English and German...I'm sorry that I'm currently too busy to share my own English translation, but I think this one is quite nice.

Happy Poetry Month!

A Walk

My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has inner light, even from a distance-

and charges us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on
answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces.

Spaziergang

Schon ist mein Blick am Hügel, dem besonnten,
dem Wege, den ich kaum begann, voran.
So faßt uns das, was wir nicht fassen konnten,
voller Erscheinung, aus der Ferne an —

und wandelt uns, auch wenn wirs nicht erreichen,
in jenes, das wir, kaum es ahnend, sind;
ein Zeichen weht, erwidernd unserm Zeichen ...
Wir aber spüren nur den Gegenwind.