“So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp”
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– Rainer Maria Rilke
Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke was a passionate seeker and explorer of both the outer and inner worlds. In his poem, A Walk, he prompts us to consider those ideal states to which we aspire: What beckons us and what value does the search provide? He asks the question: might all the seeking still be worth it, even if we don’t end up reaching the completed vision of our ideal state of being? Could a lifetime spent working toward an ideal state perform its own perfecting process inside? Could the journey toward the light that calls us be itself the gift?
Posted by Guest Editor Sam Shapiro
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 its inner light, even from a distance—
and changes 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.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
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