All Will Come Again

A poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo by David Wirzba on Unsplash

A poem to remind you of the cyclical nature of life, the falling and rising of the tide…

All will come again into its strength;
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.

And no churches
where God is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering in all relations,
and in you and me.

No yearning for an afterlife,
no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth,
lest we remain unused.

(Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)