"Poems, Prayers, & Promises" #4
Featuring Rainer Maria Rilke, Matthias Michael Beckmann, and Margit-Anna Süss
Welcome to another day of “Poems, Prayers, & Promises”
Remember, you’re the co-creator of this dive. Do as much or as little as you’d like, when you’d like, how you’d like, with the materials I provide. Just keep gentle faith with yourself.
Set your intention
Take a moment to name the primary intention you have for this month-long deep dive and/or this particular session. Take a quiet moment to center yourself in that intention.
Enter the music
Read the poem
I invite you to read this poem twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to Anita Barrow’s reading of the poem, perhaps with your eyes closed. (At the link, click the ▶️ or “play” icon beneath the titling.)
I AM PRAYING AGAIN, AWESOME ONE Rainer Maria Rilke Translated from the German by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy) I am praying again, Awesome One. You hear me again, as words from the depths of me rush toward you in the wind. I've been scattered in pieces, torn by conflict, mocked by laughter, washed down in drink. In alleyways I sweep myself up out of garbage and broken glass. With my half-mouth I stammer you, who are eternal in your symmetry. I lift to you my half-hands in wordless beseeching, that I may find again the eyes with which I once beheld you. I am a house gutted by fire where only the guilty sometimes sleep before the punishment that devours them hounds them out into the open. I am a city by the sea sinking into a toxic tide. I am strange to myself, as though someone unknown had poisoned my mother as she carried me. It's here in all the pieces of my shame that now I find myself gain. I yearn to belong to something, to be contained in an all-embracing mind that sees me as a single thing. I yearn to be held in the great hands of your heart— oh let them take me now. Into them I place these fragments, my life, and you, God—spend them however you want. (from Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, 1997)
Contemplate/Create
Use any of these questions however you wish—e.g., as openings for meditation or prayer, as prompts for journaling or poetry-writing, as sparks for drawing or painting, as catalysts for change-making . . . You may also ignore my questions altogether to go off in other directions!
The word “again” in the title implies that the narrator of the poem has resumed praying after an interruption. What does the poem reveal about that period of interruption? About what this resumption of prayer now feels like? Have you experienced interruptions in your own spiritual practices?
Have you ever been encumbered by deep shame? (Perhaps you are, even now.) How might prayer (or meditation, etc.) ease that burden?
Have you ever felt “fragmented”? (Perhaps you do, even now.) How might prayer work with the fragments? Can you imagine them being “spent” in service of something sacred?
Have you ever felt (or do you now feel) like one of these central images of the poem?
part of the garbage
a house gutted by fire
a city by the sea sinking into a toxic tide
a stranger to yourself
Describe how it feels (might feel) to be “held by the hands of God.”
Do you trust that your life, however broken, is valuable?
Does your consideration of this poem move you to make any kind of promise to yourself or someone else?
Want to visit with other Rafters in the Deep Dive?
Here are two options: either leave a comment on this post using the button, or join the chat thread dedicated to this Deep Dive. (Note: if you haven’t created a Substack profile yet, you’ll be asked to do so before you can comment or chat.)
These materials are for educational purposes only. Not for sale or reproduction.
Join us ☀️September 5 (NOT August 5) for “Rafter Refuge”! (My mistake, initially announcing the wrong date.)
6:30-8:00PM Central (7:30 ET, 5:30 MT, 4:30 PT)
Let’s close this Deep Dive with a time of sharing. Come and reflect with other Rafters on “Poems, Prayers, & Promises.” Registration is required for this celebration.
Questions? Never hesitate to contact me.
See you on Monday.
