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Rainer Maria Rilke on a really good sentence!

By Anita Mathias

Rilke on a really good sentence


“Alas, those verse one writes in youth aren’t much.  One should wait and gather meaning and sweetness all his life, a long one if possible, and then maybe at the end he might write ten good lines.  For poetry isn’t, as people imagine, merely feelings (these come soon enough); it is experiences.  To write one line, a man ought to see many cities, people, and things; he must learn to know animals and the way of birds in the air, and should be aware of the gesture with which little flowers open in the morning.  One must be able to think back the way to unknown places, to unexpected encounters and to partings long foreseen, to days of childhood…and to parents whom one had to hurt when they brought us joy (it was joy for another), to days on the sea, yes to the sea, to nights of travel that flew with the stars, and one must have memories of many nights of love, no two alike…and the screams of women in childbed…one must have sat by the dying, one must have sat by the dead in a room with open windows and intermittent noises…But it is not enough to have memories.   One must be able to forget them and have much patience until they come again, and memories as such are not enough:only when they become blood within us, and glances and gestures      nameless and no longer differentiated from us, only then it can happen that in a rare hour the first word of a verse may arise and come forth…” 
Malte Laurids Brigge

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Anita Mathias: About Me

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My Books

Wandering Between Two Worlds: Essays on Faith and Art

Wandering Between Two Worlds - Amazon.com
Amazon.com

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Francesco, Artist of Florence: The Man Who Gave Too Much

Francesco, Artist of Florence - Amazom.com
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The Story of Dirk Willems

The Story of Dirk Willems - Amazon.com
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Premier Digital Awards 2015 - Finalist - Blogger of the year
Runner Up Christian Media Awards 2014 - Tweeter of the year

Recent Posts

  •  On Not Wasting a Desert Experience
  • A Mind of Life and Peace in the Middle of a Global Pandemic
  • On Yoga and Following Jesus
  • Silver and Gold Linings in the Storm Clouds of Coronavirus
  • Trust: A Message of Christmas
  • Life- Changing Journaling: A Gratitude Journal, and Habit-Tracker, with Food and Exercise Logs, Time Sheets, a Bullet Journal, Goal Sheets and a Planner
  • On Loving That Which Love You Back
  • “An Autobiography in Five Chapters” and Avoiding Habitual Holes  
  • Shining Faith in Action: Dirk Willems on the Ice
  • The Story of Dirk Willems: The Man who Died to Save His Enemy

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What I’m Reading

Fierce Attachments: A Memoir
Vivian Gornick

Fierce Attachments  - Amazon.com
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Wanderlust
Rebecca Solnit

Solnit --  Amazon.com
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Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life
Kathleen Norris

KATHLEEN NORRIS --  Amazon.com
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Opened Ground: Poems, 1966-96
Seamus Heaney

Opened Ground: Poems, 1966-96 Amazon.com
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