Sonnets to Orpheus
Silent friend of many distances,
feel how your breath is still increasing space.
Among the beams of dark belfries let
yourself ring out. What feeds on you
will grow strong upon this nourishment.
Be conversant with transformation.
From what experience have you suffered most?
Is drinking bitter to you, turn to wine.
Be, in this immeasurable night,
magic power at your senses' crossroad,
be the meaning of their strange encounter.
And if the earthly has forgotten you,
say to the still earth: I flow.
To the rapid water speak: I am.
--Rainer Maria Rilke
I'm in Bangkok, leaving now. Tonight Singapore, tomorrow the Pacific Ocean. Some indecipherable time zone later, Ottawa. Game over.