the  storm

The  Man  Watching

I can tell by the way the trees beat, after

so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes,

that a storm is coming,

and I feel the far-off fields say things

I can’t bear without a friend,

I can’t love without a sister.

The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on

across the woods and across time,

and the world looks as if it had no age:

the landscape, like a line in the psalm book,

is seriousness and weight and eternity.

What we choose to fight is so tiny!

What fights with us is so great!

If only we would let ourselves be dominated

as things do by some immense storm,

we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it’s with small things,

and the triumph itself makes us small.

What is extraordinary and eternal

does not  want  to be bent by us.

I mean the Angel, who appeared

to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:

when the wrestlers sinews

grew like long metal strings,

he felt them under his fingers

like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by his Angel,

(who often simply declined the fight),

went away proud and strengthened

and great from that harsh hand,

that kneaded him as if to change his shape.

This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively

By constantly greater beings.

Rainer Maria Rilke   translated by  Robert Bly

receiving the harvest
 

we are into the harvest cycle now

 how does it feel
in your heart
in your belly?
how does it feel in your whole body

 when you look back to last winter and early spring
the time of sowing
how does it feel
what do you see
do you notice patterns of association
between the seed and the harvest
do you like what you see
what do you feel

 i have found it is best not to judge
what appears to be a weed in the garden
often turns out to be a sacred healing herb

 it is best not to judge

 receive the harvest
be thankful for what returns
sanctify your sons and your daughters
and
deliver the gift

 as it is in you and me
so it is in the world

 the world as a whole has moved into a season of harvest
together
we reap the harvest from centuries of sowing
how does it feel
do you like what you see now appearing in the earth

 it is best not to judge

 in the world cycle
the fire of harvest blends
with the water of new beginnings
this is a newly dawning day
and a fine mist rises up from the face of the land
watering the whole garden
the planting of the lord

 receive the harvest
be thankful for what returns
sanctify your sons and your daughters
deliver the gift

 deliver the gift

 david barnes