German poet Rainer Rilke was twenty-three when he traveled to Russia with the woman who was his soul mate, Lou, in 1899. After his return, over twenty-five days near Berlin, he wrote sixty-seven poems which became the first part of a book of poems known as The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, called “The Book of a Monastic Life.” In 1900, after another sojourn to Russia, Rilke wrote another thirty-four poems which became a second part of the book, called “The Book of Pilgrimage.” And in 1903, by the sea in Italy, he wrote thirty-four more poems which made the third and final portion of his book, called “The Book of Poverty and Death.” The poems, collected in The Book of Hours, are deeply introspective, spiritual and speak of a rich love and hunger for God.
Rilke writes of his desire for authenticity in his relationship with God (49):
Piously we produce our images of you
till they stand around you like a thousand walls.
and when our hearts would simply open, our fervent hands hide you.
He speaks of his desire to be unbounded and unreserved in his expression to God (65):
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.
Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,
streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.
Rilke expresses his desire to be held in the heart of God (139):
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.
And in this poem, originally written for Lou and slipped under her door, but now included in these poems addressed to God, we see an unquenchable love for the Father (163):
Extinguish my eyes, I’ll go on seeing you.
Seal my ears, I’ll go on hearing you.
And without feet I can make my way to you,
without a mouth I can swear your name.
Break off my arms, I’ll take hold of you
with my heart as with a hand.
Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.
And if you consume my brain with fire,
I’ll feel you burn in every drop of my blood.
Together, the poems remind us of the fundamental element of life with God. It’s simply about falling in love.
