To Rainer Maria Rilke

To Rainer Maria Rilke

The soul is, in a manner, everything,
Becoming that which it perceives, and more,
Transforming the perceived to match the core
Of what it is and what it learns to sing.

Thus is it when a song finds its true word
Within the ear, both by we hearers changed
And changing us. Else we would be estranged
From this, our world, unhearing and unheard.

Great poet! How you understood that song
Is, at its heart, the essence of "to be."
And that by song we make potential act.

You knew the paradox, that soul turns fact,
When mountain, bird, rock, angel, wind, and tree
Both do and suffer as we sing along.