The Value of Solitude Joanna

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1 Rilke // a poet's dog tags Adam   
      Rilke is obsessed with loneliness, and he often prescribes it as the drug to cure the young Kappus of his various personal ailments. On page 17 he writes, "We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and most important to us." I think he sees aloneness as the way to a personal identity - as a way of answering the most gutteral human question: "Who am I?" Above all, the poet self must be. It must lift itself off of life's chaos. It must be allowed to contract (constrict) and differentiate - to stand apart. This is a need he often speaks of. Needs offer means to survival, and this need for solitude is the means to the survival of the 'inner self'. For instance, Rilke stresses the need for solitude in the case of young lovers: "being no longer able to differentiate, they no longer possess anything of their own. How can they on their own find the escape route that they have already blocked to that inner solitude?" (68). They have betrayed their inner selves, and are lost in a mix of hearts, blood and bones. They have no identity. It is as if they are non-humans, lost in a faceless limbo.
       Rilke is advising a young man, not a poet, to turn inward. If he is truly a poet, then that will become apparent through his need to write. "A piece of art is good if it is born of necessity." (11). Rilke uses his creative skills to express what our basic urge is. We must define ourselves and set ourselves apart. Through a "pact with lonliness" we give ourselves the space to emerge and take on an image, to baloon into our unique forms.

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1 Rilke // An Afternoon With Rilke and Its Impact On Me Kevin
     On Monday after class I went to lunch with some comrades I hadn't seen since December. It was very nice, but I couldn't quite enjoy it as much as I would've liked. There was a dark cloud hanging over my head, the cumulo nimbus of required reading. After my meal I went to the book store and cringed as the total appeared on the register. I headed back to my humble room, poured myself a cup of hot chocolate and began my journey into the mind of Rilke. Immediately I found myself intrigued with what he had to say, and before I knew it I was on letter seven. Rilke writes in a very straight forward, poetic and personable style that make his messages all the more easy to grasp and comprehend.  
       In his fourth letter Rilke writes to Mr. Kappus, "You are so young... have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers." (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, 35) For a split second I believed Rilke was talking directly to me. Being a freshman I am currently faced with many decisions that will affect me for the rest of my life. I just received a letter in the mail asking me to declare a major. I have stayed up many nights lying awake in bed asking myself, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" And that is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. My approach has been to this point and will continue to be that I should take classes that interest me that things will work out. Rilke it seems would approve, however much the people in academic advising people do not. "Like locked rooms and books in a foreign language..." What great symbolism. The answers to my future are unknown. I can't see them yet, but with hard work and attained knowledge, I will someday.
        Another passage that particularly struck me and spoke to my current situation was "Embrace your solitude and love it. Endure the pain it causes and try to sing out with it. For those near to you are distant, you say. That shows it is beginning to dawn around you; there is an expanse opening around you." (Rilke, Letters To A Young Poet, 41) The transition from high school is a very turbulent and frightening experience for many people, myself included. I am a bit of an introvert. This last summer was the first time in my life that I felt I had really good friends that I could pour my heart out to and trust beyond a doubt. And then I had to leave them and seemingly start over. I spent many nights wandering the SJU woods with only my thoughts to keep me company. Eventually I began to make acquaintances that have blossomed and will continue to grow. One thing that helped me to be open to new people was the realization that they were all I the same boat I am. Rilke tells Mr. Kappus that he should be good to the people that are far away, and confident in their continued support. He instructs that we should maintain communication with them, it is not necessary to forget them to move ahead in life. "The nights are still there and the winds that roam over many lands." (Rilke, Letters To A Young Poet, 57) In this great time of change in my life, somethings will always be constant, and I can always take solace in those.
       And so, as I put my book down that afternoon, two cups of hot chocolate later, I felt enriched and a little more knowledgeable for having read it.

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1 Rilke // Children, Animals and Ghosts Sersh

"And yet they, who have passed away long ago, still exist in us, as predisposition, as burden upon our fate, as murmuring blood, and as gesture that rises up from the depths of time" (Rilke, Letter 6). In some way, I think this passage creates a bridge from the passage we read in class about the experience necessary to create "maybe ten good lines" and John’s strong belief in the poetry of naiveté. While I was traveling this J term, I had the opportunity to see many disadvantaged children. One stands out in my mind: a little black girl from the south side of Chicago, we can call her Vanessa. She grew up in Cabrini green, a notorious housing project, but a situation that was better than she presently was in (just got off the streets). Within her eyes, where you might expect to find the glitter of a mischievous imp, or maybe the sadness and hardship she has gone through, instead was a stoic hardiness that spoke of ancient strength. This little girl was filled with a history that pumped through her blood, even if she has never heard a word of it, she knew it in her muscles. You can be as naive as a child and as experienced as the aged, crushed down by the weight of God.

In fact, Rilke seems to celebrate the child’s worldview as the poet’s view, as the mystic’s. "To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours-that is what you must be able to obtain. To be solitary as you were when you were a child, when grownups walked around involved with matters that seemed large and important . . . And when you realize that their activities are shabby, that their vocations are petrified and no longer connected with life, why not then continue to look upon it all as a child would . . . ? (Letter 6).

Why should we be like children? Because children, if in touch with themselves, if immersed in their solitude, can reach a level of connection with that which is before us and after us we as adult-actors can never come close to. Children, like animals, are aware of the ghosts and hobgoblins we have too long ignored. "The fact that people have in this sense been cowardly has done infinite to life; the experiences that are called "apparitions", the whole so-called "spirit world," death, all these Things that are so closely related to us, have through our daily defensiveness been so entirely pushed out of life that the senses with which we might have been able to grasp them have atrophied. To say nothing of God" (Letter 8). This reminds me of a story I read before sleeping last night. A village has been without rain for a terribly long time. They call in the rainmaker, who sets up a little hut just outside the village and lives alone and silently for a month. Soon enough, the rains come.

The villagers run outside in the torrent to thank the rainmaker. He replies to all of their thanks with the repeated statement, "But I did not make it rain". Finally, someone asked him what he means.

He relied, "When I came into the village, I could sense the unbalance. I went into the hut, and spent the month getting myself into balance. When I was in balance, you all slowly came into balance, and from that balance, the rains came" (from the latest issue of a magazine called The Sun). The poet’s job is not just to tell us we are out of balance, but to get us back into balance, by bringing his/her self into balance.

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1 Rilke // Crushing Romantic Love Jennifer

Our society is forever touting theories of romantic love, in which two individuals suddenly realize their intense love for each other, within a suitable three day period of acquaintance and then ride off into the sunset of romance where the relationship is destined to last forever without quarrel or hardship. These theories run rampant in today’s popular culture, running amuck through the heads and hearts of dreamy eyed girls and boys. In Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke carefully points out to Mr. Kappus that this impression of love is untrue to the term love and barely touches the possibilities contained in the idea of pure love.

In this text, Rilke’s comments on the illusion of romantic love contain intense harassment of immature thought on the issue of love. He writes:

Love does not at first have anything to do with arousal, surrender and uniting with another being- for what union can be built upon uncertainty, immaturity, and lack of coherence? Love is a high inducement for individuals to ripen, to strive to mature in the inner self, to manifest maturity in the outer world, to become that manifestation for the sake of another" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 65-6.).

Rilke’s impression of love is one that benefits both individuals completely within the union of love. He sees a form of love that denies the needs of a self through the realization of those needs in the form of the individuals efforts for her or his partner in love. He also images love as an opportunity for the growth of both individuals within the bond of love. Love becomes an opportunity for change, rather than for the stagnation of individual thought.

Rilke harshly chastises young individuals who use love as a surface retreat from daily life. "[Young people] exchange the softly advancing and retreating of gentle premonitions of the spirit for an unfruitful restlessness" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 67.). To me, Rilke seems to be describing the restlessness that has driven our nation to a fifty percent divorce rate and to a pessimistic outlook on relationships.

Rilke writes, "Society has known how to create every kind of refuge conceivable. Since it is inclined to perceive love life as entertainment, it needs to display it as easily available, inexpensive, safe, and reliable, just like common public entertainment" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 67.). Society has slipped around the true meaning of self definition and connection in love in order to "dumb it down" for the population, which has bought us to an easier version of love, one that, on a movie screen, takes only three days to find, win, and keep. The value Rilke sees in love is one barely visible to today’s society, but vibrant within the pages of these short letters.

1 Rilke -- Echoing from Memory                                                   Rachel

Rilke speaks of the book Niels Lyhne saying, "There is nothing in it that would not be understandable, comprehensible, or that wouldn't ring true to experience. There is nothing in it that would not summon a familiar resonance echoing from the memory." As I read letter after letter, I found myself coming back to this quote. On almost every page I have written words in the margin that no one but myself can understand; they refer to my own experiences. Though there are passages that I question, ideas that don't sit right with me, the overwhelming majority of Rilke's ideas "summon a familiar resonance echoing from the memory."

When I read "All Things consist of carrying to term and them giving birth," I feel comforted by it's "familiar resonance." It's not that I have heard this metaphor before, but that once I read it, I knew I have been looking for this metaphor. It is a hard sensation to describe, because the passage, as Rilke says, "summons a familiar resonance echoing from memory." It is a metaphor of motherhood, of pregnancy, of birth, of creation. We are a society that unconsciously uses war metaphors as though we were in danger of forgetting what war is, as though war was our favorite past time, as though war was the only experience we could recall. To realize this though does not solve the problem. We must actively create new habits in our speech. It is not easy to forget our most common metaphors and to create new ones that do not recall images of violence. I find it extremely difficult because speaking is a habit for me, and to change I must not only break the habit but create for myself a whole new way of thinking. I have a long way to go. I still do not notice destructive metaphors; they sneak up on me and sneak away again and I never notice. It is only when I read a line like this, where Rilke uses a birth metaphor, that I begin to think again about the power of language and metaphors, and I realize how difficult it is to turn war comparisons, into comparisons of birth, fertility, and motherhood. Rilke's passage feels familiar to me because I look for these words, I recognize them as coming from a free thinker, from someone who has lived and experienced, and who is deliberate with their words as I would like to be.

Rilke writes not only with a familiarity that echoes from our memory, but with a poetic beauty that pulls us in and captivates us. I find it almost impossible to disagree with any of Rilke's ideas unless I make the conscious effort to pull myself away from the book. This art Rilke has mastered, of pulling the reader inside, is similar to the atmosphere my choir director, Mr. Pool, tried to create between our choir and the audience. We were 18 young women in long black dresses with roses on our wrists. When we stood together we were one gem that glowed with 18 facets, throwing the light in a 18 beautiful directions. And between us and Mr. Pool, in that area of 6ft, something amazing happened, something that drew the audience in. We danced. Perhaps for a moment the audience felt they were part of this, perhaps they drew something away from it and our concert changed them, perhaps they wanted more than anything to be on stage with us... but they weren't. This is how Rilke effects me. He draws us in to the place where the light comes from, then we watch as the light springs from the gem in a million different directions, illuminating the world in a whole new light. And perhaps this illumination will change the way we see the world, but it does not make us a part of Rilke's world. Just as the audience couldn't be part of the dance, so can we only observe and marvel at and be captivated by Rilke's dance with the world. The passage that I haven't seemed to be able to work into this paragraph, but which inspired these thoughts reads: "What is keeping you from ... living your life as though it were one painful beautiful day in the history of a great pregnancy?" This is Rilke's dance with language, with life and experience. To read something so poetic and beautiful as this makes me smile and cry. It creates in me a feeling of longing, of wanting to live my life this way, of wanting to use language this way. I long to see my life as a beautiful painful day in the carrying to term of something, that when it's born, will be the greatest most loving act of creation we could imagine.

There are so many more underlined and stared and noted passages that I want to write about. I had this notion of going back through the book and journaling on every passage I'd marked, but I find now that I must pick one more idea, one more passage that "summon[s] a familiar resonance." Coming from the idea of a "beautiful painful day ... [in] a great pregnancy", Rilke draws me in again when he says "There is much beauty here because there is much beauty everywhere." Like Rilke's birth metaphors, this is an idea that I look for. I am drawn over and over again to the idea of beauty everywhere, and every time I come across it again it jumps up and kisses my cheek. No matter how many times I hear it, it always suppress me. I look up on my bookshelf and I see the title Little Altars Everywhere, and I am amazed at the simple truth of these three words. I have this suspicion that this simple thought is at the same time deep and complex and rare, and that I must treasure it. I suspect also that more than anything else I have encountered, it could transform my life and my whole way of thinking. I recently returned from England, and there I picked up a book Fairy Spells for my sister. The book is basically the author's view of life. She writes about coming to the world with a childlike sense of awe; she challenges readers to be amazed by the world around them, and to look for magical happenings. I hope she has read Rilke. After reading her ideas I wrote in my journal "yes, but it's so much easier to see the trees here with awe, for they are so much older and more majestic. I look for the unexpected bit of magic here, in 500 year old cathedrals and reading graves from the past centuries, because this country has more enchantment than the States." Then I realized that by having this thought I had missed the whole point. Everything is enchanted. There are little altars everywhere. And in the words of Peter Mayer (sp?) "Everything is holy now.".

1 Rilke // How About Some Peace? Anne

I really enjoyed this book, and so many passages stick out. Much of it speaks to my life and where I am right now and where I want to be. What first stood out for me is Rilke's emphasis on the power of solitude and loneliness. "What you really need is simply this--aloneness, great inner solitude. To go within and for hours not to meet anyone--that is what one needs to attain" (Rilke, Letter 6, page 55).

Rilke is telling his pen pal of the importance of quiet and peace, no phone calls, no e-mails, etc. For me, my life is very busy, and I allow many people, phone calls, meetings and details into my everyday life. I love these things, but I also need solitude. At times, I feel my inner peace dissipating. For J-term break I had the opportunity to fly to Florida to visit my god-parents. My 4 day vacation was just what the doctored ordered. I spent a lot of quiet time thinking, and I even started writing in a journal, something I haven't done for awhile. On the plane ride home I looked at my new art books, stared out the window, and kept writing in my journal. In those brief days I recaptured some of my inner peace, and it was through inner solitude, reflection, and staring at the ocean, that it happened. I hope I can continue to make that a priority in my life. I think Rilke is saying that we need to alone with ourselves, to know who we are, and to listen and recognize our inner voice. It is interesting how he stressed the importance of loneliness where in today's society, we are encouraged to be social beings. We can learn a lot from loneliness.

Another passage that was particularly beautiful to me is where Rilke is writing Mr. Kappus a Christmas letter. Mr. Kappus does not believe in God, and Rilke challenges him and offers comforting words. "Perhaps these very days of your transition are the times that He is touched by everything within you. Perhaps you are influencing him, just as you a child with breathless effort left your mark on him" (Rilke, Letter 6, page 59). Many times, I think we always hear about how God affects our lives, how God changes us, etc. Sometimes it can seem like a one-sided relationship. How do we affect God? I love this passage because it is saying that God is personally affected by everything we do, He/She not only watches over all of us, but God is changed personally by our actions. We leave our mark on God. What a beautiful concept.

Lastly, I want to mention the passage where Rilke discusses how we should not live in fear. We mustn't blame society for we have created this fear. "We have no reason to mistrust our world, for it is not against us. If it has terrors, they are our own terrors. If dangers are present, we must try to love them ..... embrace that which is difficult" (Rilke, Letter 8, page 85). This quote seems relevant to today's society because I think we are taught by the media, parents, etc. etc. to at times live in fear. In reality we are the ones causing fear today. Countries are perpetuating fear and mistrust of each other through wars, trade embargoes, news stories, missile reserves, etc. We have in our mind stereotypes of different types of people, African-Americans, homosexuals, people from the South, International students, and all of these things create barriers and fear between people. Rilke is telling us to face our fears whether it's on a national scale or if it involves talking to someone new on the bus.

Lonely Aspirations

After reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s, Letters to a Young Poet, I definitely felt a new twist of inspiration and guidance. As a reader, I was allowed to be the receiver of these letters, to be welcomed into Rilke’s intimate, private life as a writer. I struggled as Franz Kappus did with his writing and valued the unique suggestions Rilke offered us.

I was particularly struck by the first letter Rilke wrote and how he developed a sense of what poetry is and how to go about writing it. As he says, "Most happenings are beyond expression; they exist where a word has never intruded" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 7). Wow! For a poet to exist in this world where words cannot capture expression leaves me both confused and marveled. In my experience, the poet sets out to grasp the unexplainable in minute, intricate details that leave the imagination to stretch into different forms much like play-doh. Rilke continues in the same letter to speak about the importance of knowing you love writing and cannot live without it: "Above all, in the most silent hour of the night, ask yourself this: Must I write?" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 9). Rilke catches the spirit of the obsession writing must be-fervent and passionate like a secret lover the writer must flee to at all expense in the depths of the night. I enjoyed the appeal of this image Rilke is concocting of how the poet is trapped in a place where words usually cannot or are not used properly to convey experience at the same time that the poet is desperately scrambling to capture those experiences with his/her own words.

Another aspect of Rilke that intrigued me was his sincere outlook on aloneness. He seems very sure that this is the only way one is able to write and that poets should devote their lives to themselves. At the end of his fourth letter, Rilke comments to Kappus, "It is good that you are settling into a career that will make you independent, and that you will be relying completely on yourself in every sense" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 42). In some ways, I disagree with Rilke here because I believe the writer is at the mercy of everyone else, relying on the world around him/her to provide the material for writing. However, it eventually boils down to the poet, who must look inward to develop his/her poetry and to experience life for his/her own self, which I think Rilke is getting at.

Here are additional phrases of Rilke included in Letters to a Young Poet that I found rather beautifully perplexing:

"Destiny itself is like a wonderful wide tapestry in which every thread is guided by an unspeakably tender hand, placed beside another thread, and held and carried by a hundred others" (24).

"To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree, which does not force its sap, but stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow" (26).

"Why don’t you think of [God] as the coming one, who has been at hand since eternity, the future one, the final fruit of a tree, with us as its leaves?" (58).

Where does one look to find the hidden art of the world? Surely only those who have lived fascinating lives can tell a great story, compose a beautiful song, or paint a glorious picture, right? Wrong. According to Rilke, "If your everyday life appears to be unworthy subject matter, do not complain to life. Complain to yourself. Lament that you are not poet enough to call up its wealth. For the creative artist there is no poverty - nothing is insignificant or unimportant" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 10.). The "sunken sensations of a distant past" will suffice for inspiration, but only if an aspiring artist MUST share his or her art with the world (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 10). Any layman can attempt to become a writer, a composer, or a painter, yet only the greatest of these MUST partake in such activities. If the true source of creation is found at the deepest level of our being, then we, both students and teachers of poetry, must look inward to find our inspiration. If true art is found, we must be willing to "bear its burden" and share it with others, no matter what the cost (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p.11). Rilke wants Mr. Kappus to recognize that a subject for a poem can be found anywhere; the deepest desire and need for poetry, however, is not so easily discovered. Mr. Kappus must find out whether he needs to write. The fact he wants to write is simply not enough.

Rilke seems to enjoy inner conflict. He writes, "People have, with the help of so many conventions, resolved everything the easy way, on the easiest side of easy. But it is clear that we must embrace struggle. Every living thing conforms to it" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p.64.). Rilke recognizes that suffering and alienation cause us to reflect on life and examine the role we play in society. How do we relate to others? How does art relate to the world? Often, the answers to these questions can be found at the same time: when one is feeling lonely and struggling to cope with life. I frequently use art (music, books, movies, etc.) to connect - both physically and emotionally - with friends and family. Yet I also use similar diversions for comfort when I feel sad and depressed. This is what makes art important: It is there for us in good times and bad, like a family member or a pet. Rilke appears to be explaining that if we reject the easy (and shallow) path in life, we will be rewarded in the end. No great thing, whether it is a work of art or a newborn child, can come into existence without a struggle.

Of course, one cannot overcome obstacles without patience. Rilke writes, "To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree, which does not force its sap, but stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow. It will come regardless. But it comes only to those who live as though eternity stretches before them, carefree, silent, and endless" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 26). If we allow ourselves to be immersed in the quick pace of the modern world, leaving little time for inward contemplation, art will suffer. We must allow our minds to have energy, space, and freedom. Clocks and the deadlines that accompany them have no place in the process of creation. Rilke knows we must always take time to live, breathe, and feel the art that exists in the world. People grow naturally and individually over the course of time. This does not mean we must reject the world around us, but we must always recognize that life is more than what appears before our eyes.

In order to live a complete and contemplative life, Rilke wants us to come to terms with the world as it is: "We must accept our existence to the greatest extent possible; everything, the unprecedented also, needs to be accepted. That is basically the only case of courage required of us: to be courageous in the face of the strangest, the most whimsical and unexplainable thing that we could encounter" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 82). If we accept the world, we are able to truly feel that of which it is composed: the many different things that motivate and alienate humankind. To reject the pain of life is to reject a portion of our being. In my opinion, Rilke, though he may receive tremendous satisfaction from his poetry, really enjoys the process more than the reward. For him, the process of creation is the means by which to accept the world to the greatest extent possible, for it is on the written page where he makes sense of the tragedies and triumphs of human life.

Scott Williams

1 Rilke // The Artists' Experience Ryan

The Artist's Experience

The letters written to Franz Kappus by Rainer Maria Rilke speak not only to the budding young poet they were addressed to, but to all artists who seek inspiration. Rilke possess a profound understanding of people and life which he stresses can only be understood and written about through experience.

One way Rilke suggests that to understand the eternal and immutable, one must be patient and seek out the answers in one's surroundings. "One gradually begins to recognize the very few things in which eternity dwells, which one can love, and solitude, of which one can softly partake" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p.47). This seeking, actively searching out the "very few things" comes only to those with the patience and perseverance to search. Each experience must draw one closer to the reality of the world. I find this idea very exciting, an adventure for reality in which all the pieces are always around us, but it isn't a matter of where we search, but how we search. A very interesting concept, but frustrating to understand.

As mentioned earlier, one must be observant to find the "very few things." Rilke says, "... it is so important to be alone and observant when one is sad" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 79). This special attention given to the self is also an interesting concept of how people change, and thus changes how they view their environment. Emotions are very powerful, and sadness is the emotion that often changes people the most. I agree that almost all sadness changes us, and sometimes people don't recognize how much they are changed by sadness. Although I believe that poetry is more than emotions on paper, I think that for a poem to be effective, it must invoke some sort of emotional response in the author and the reader. A poem should be difficult to write, an extension of the poet, and a poet must feel an emotional loss when a poem is written. Therefore, a good poet must have a true and deep understand of emotions, especially their own.

"Works of art can be described as having an essence of eternal solitude and an understanding is attainable least of all by critique" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 25). When I first read this line, I really didn't agree with it. After reading it a couple more times though, I agree more and more with its message. If a poem is an intensely emotional relationship between poem and poet, and each person through their own experiences and backgrounds will experience the poem differently, who then has the right to judge a poem? It seems to me that people may dislike a poem, or believe that the poem didn't "speak" to them, but does that mean it is a bad poem? Not necessarily. I don't think that emotions are invoked by poetry as much as the people reading the poem assign their emotions to the work. Therefore, a poem that doesn't evoke emotions from one person may not mean it is a poor poem, but may mean instead the reader was unable or unwilling to fully connect himself or herself emotionally with the poem. I think the thrust of Rilke's advice of diverse and observant to experiences equips the poet to write poems that many members of their audience will be able to relate to, and at the same time allow the poet to relate to other works and experiences in life.

Rilke passes a plethora of information to Franz Kappus that can be utilized for all creative spirits. His message is clear: experience is the key to great poetry.

1 Rilke // The Colloseum is just a bunch of bricks. Tim

"All these things mean nothing, are nothing, and have no worth, no heart." (Rilke, Letter 5, page 46) I never dreamed any poet's description of Rome would be quite like this. This quote is an example of one of the many times Rilke surprised me with a unique perspective. His insights frequently reminded me of being younger when I learned new information about something I thought I knew well.

One of Rilke's insights is inspirational to me: "For what I could say to you about your inclination to doubt or about your inability to bring your inner and outer life into harmony, or about everyting else that causes you concern -- It is always that which I have already said: It is always my wish that you might find enough patience within yourself to endure, and enough innocence to have faith." (Rilke, Letter 9, page 92) I think this idea of innocence is beautiful. I have until now thought of innocence as a terrific characteristic that is given at birth, but diminishes with age, not age but knowledge and experience. The concept that innocence should be sought after and maintained is wonderful.

Once in a while I get the feeling that there is nothing left to discover, but living innocently as a child makes everything a discovery since it allows you to keep your unique perspective.

Rilke describes a familiar unknown that hasn't been discovered: "Whoever will seriously consider the question of love will find that, as with the question of death, difficult as it is, there is no enlightened answer, no solution, not the hint of a path has yet been found." (Rilke, Letter 7, 69) Rilke says this among pages that talk about love extensively. It's great that along with some excellent observations of the disappointing role of love in society, Rilke maintains the mystery and wonder of love. I agree whole-heartedly with the seriousness he gives to the subject of love. I wish more people shared his perspective.

1 Rilke // The Power Within Jeff

Too often in my life I feel like I’m living my life for someone else. I go to school to accept the assignments that my teacher gives me. I go to my job to fulfill my supervisor’s expectations. I go home to share my experiences with my parents hoping that they will be proud of me. Why do I do this? Why can’t I live my life for just me? I think I am constantly trying to search for meaning in my life through others. I bathe in the rewards of the compliments that I receive from my teachers, my supervisor, my family and friends. I take the criticisms that they give me seriously. At the beginning of Letters to a Young Poet, we understand why Kappus is writing to Rilke: Kappus wants to receive compliments and criticisms from an outsider. However, Rilke won’t criticize Kappus’s work. Rilke tells Kappus that only he himself can critique his work. He must write poetry for himself, not for others. Only then will he understand the true value of writing poetry.

This is the power that I want to talk about: the power from within. I see this as a theme throughout Rilke’s letters. Instead of looking for answers outside, we must look for answers inside, right under our nose! It’s like when we one is madly searching for his or her glasses only to later realize that the glasses were resting on the top of his or her head. I find that this theme is useful when trying to find oneself. No one from the outside can truly tell us who each one of us is. It’s something we have to figure out for ourselves. College teaches us just this. It teaches us to be independent. We begin to form our own views and our own take on the world. We must hold strong to our convictions and have the courage to follow through with them.

Rilke teaches us how to look into ourselves. Instead of hunting for answers outside, we need to realize that answers are all around us everyday in the ordinary, everyday experiences of our inside life. Rilke says that the insignificant things are the most significant things and we must learn how to see these things in this new light: "For the creative artist there is no poverty-nothing is insignificant or unimportant" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 10). How many of our days go by with us not realizing the beauty of the ordinary. How many times do we hear ourselves saying: "I’m bored," or "There’s nothing to do" ? This makes me laugh because my grandfather always used to tell us grandchildren that boring was not in the dictionary every time he heard one of us say one of these phrases. Well, he was wrong that boring is not in the dictionary because it is, but his outlook on life was correct in that nothing in life is meaningless.

I see this same theme continued in Kappus’s struggle of making some big decisions. Kappus is asking Rilke for advice about whether or not he should continue his writing career. Rilke again tells Kappus to look within himself for the answer: "When considering analysis, discussion, or presentation, listen to your inner / self and to your feelings every time" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 25-6). This is one area that I will pat myself on the back, if I may. I always listen to my inner voice and to my gut feeling inside of me. Last summer I had the opportunity to give admission tours to prospective students at CSB/SJU. We all know how big that college decision can sometimes be. My best piece of advice for them was for them to listen to their gut feeling. If the campuses did not feel like home to them, then they should be going here. I told them that the college they should choose is the one that feels like home. No one can tell you where you should go: not me, not your parents, and not the admission counselor. Only YOU can make that decision.

Rilke keeps mentioning the power of aloneness. Aloneness is an area of this theme (the power within) that I cannot comprehend too greatly. I’m hoping maybe we can clarify this point more in class. I guess I personally don’t value an extended period of time of aloneness. Sure, I do feel that occasionally I need to be alone, but for the most part I believe that we are social beings and we NEED people. I can’t imagine the enormous amount of time Kappus was spending alone. I would go nuts. I would have to disagree with Rilke’s encouragement to Kappus of being alone. Maybe my view would change if I understood more deeply the value of aloneness. The early part of my childhood and in grade school would have to be the part of my life where I was most alone. And from that experience, I really wouldn’t recommend it to others.

Finally, I was greatly touched by Rilke’s interpretation that we can look for God within ourselves! Wow! This brings this theme to a climax. To think that God is within ourselves is just amazing. I have always tried to see God in OTHERS, but never really in MYSELF. Instead of searching for God outside, in the past, or in the future, Rilke believes we should find God right here and now in ourselves. The most interesting point of all this is that Rilke believes that we have to build God for ourselves. Maybe this is why I don’t always see God or feel his presence in his life, because I haven’t built him yet from the inside out. Rilke explains, "By extracting the most possible sweetness out of everything, just as the bees gather honey, we thus build Him" (Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, p. 59). We have been forced to listen to others our whole life: our parents, teachers, supervisors, etc. I believe that I have built myself up from the outside, now I feel that I have some major construction work that needs to take place from the inside out. Where do I begin?

Wow, I wrote a lot. I don’t think my future journal entries will be as long due to time constraints! So enjoy it while you can!