Courage and rage
And the call to creativity
[Editor’s note: By mistake, when this post was sent, it was open only to paid subscribers. It is now open to all, and the Poetry Unbound Substack will continue to be readable by everyone. Apologies for the error.]
I was glad for us to spend time with Rumi last week and to consider the question of organic growth in the face of destruction.
Listening to The Rest Is Politics podcast this week, I heard Karim Sadjadpour say that a city is built over decades but destroyed in weeks. It’s depressing, yes. It’s also an indication of the predictability of the destructive plotline and the demand — fruitful, worthwhile — in the creative enterprise.
I do not know how to resist the aggressions, broadcasted and more local, of our world. But I do know how to look for surprise. Creativity is not just confined to those who are painting, or dancing or making poems or music. It is also the making of a community: a health care system; an education; a way of keeping people sanitised; a way of keeping people sane.
Art is found in made things and in many made things — a transportation system in a city; a living wage for workers; negotiations to make border crossings safer; putting garlic in olives; sprinkling sea salt on fresh bread — and it is in the vulnerability and risk of cooperation that we find ourselves alive. I continue to hold to the idea that speaking words of beauty reminds us of the possibility of language. And especially in weeks when we hear the impoverishment of speech from many quarters, it is good to bask in something uplifting, to remind us of the power of language to do that most risky thing: to make something new.
So, here by Rainer Maria Rilke is poem 59, Book I:
God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.
I.59, translated by Joanna Macey and Anita Burrows and collected in their Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (Riverhead Books, 2005)
This week I’m curious to find out: Which line is working something in you? Is it “Nearby …” or “Give me your hand.”? Is it “God speaks …”, or something else?
Vulnerable language can help us find space to address the threats in our lives. I wish I knew how to scale this up into the furies of the world, and I honour all truth-tellers who speak against the pandemonium of propaganda and distraction. From where I am, I try to do my bit to address the frailties of the human condition with courage rather than rage. May we be nurtured by the kind of presence that gave rise to Rilke’s language.
I will meet you in your reflections, friends.
Poetry in the World
A list of my events: Online and in the U.S. (Manhattan and Rhinebeck, NY; Notre Dame, IN; Santa Fe, NM) and Scotland (Iona)
Join Eddie Gonzalez and myself for a free virtual celebration of National Poetry Month hosted by The Well World, beginning at 3 p.m ET. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
The Charter for Compassion is collaborating with On Being and The Luce Foundation for an event in celebration of National Poetry Month. I’ll read poems on prayer and protest and hold a brief Q&A, beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
Save the date for a special event to honor and support the work of St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. I’ll be reading new poems from my next collection; join me there at 7 p.m. (Registration details are not yet available but will be coming soon.)
I’ll be giving the keynote for a symposium at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
May 31–June 5, Rhinebeck, New York
This spring, I’m leading a six-day workshop at the Omega Institute. We’ll read and examine poems and also write and discuss our own. I’d love to see you there. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
June 27–July 3, Iona, Scotland
Krista and I will be leading a week of conversation (with some musical guests) on Iona, an island off an island off the west coast of Scotland. It is filled, but if you want to be on a waiting list, you can email the Saint Columba hotel by clicking on the title just above here. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
August 9–13, Santa Fe, New Mexico
I’m leading a four-day intensive workshop at Modern Elder Academy called “Poetry as a Common Language”. We’ll read, write, and discuss poems on finding and deepening connection. (For more information, click on the date heading.)
I’ll be leading a virtual craft intensive on poetry and desire through Poets House, beginning at 6 p.m. ET. (For more info, click on the date heading.)
“Just keep going”. There are days - lately a lot of them - when it would be easier to crawl in a hole. But we can’t do that. Just keep going.
"Give me your hand" is what resonates with me as I wait in the pre-dawn for my wife to wake up. During the night, I found her hand and held it for a while. It wasn't clear whether she was awake or asleep, but her hand let me know she is still there with me as we let everything happen to us in our seventies.