As once the winged energy of delight carried you
Hi, it’s Holly, from SPELLS, here. If you’re getting this, it’s because you’re subscribed to my mailing list. I’m dropping bits and fragments of art to you here until January 7, as we move through the dark part of the year. So glad to be in connection with you.
In the class I’m teaching called Leaning Against in the Darkness, we talked recently about memorizing poetry as a kind of “leaning against” for your mind, your spirit. Leaning into the structure of the lines or sound of the words in the air, into the heart of them, as a house in vast space. I’ve continued to develop & expand my ideas of “leaning against” as an artist, & as a human, how we are continually leaning into & against.
Back when I was serving tables at a restaurant, I would daily recite the lines of this poem by Rilke as I wiped down the tables & set them, before opening. It speaks to leaning against that mysterious “winged energy of delight.” I leaned hard against this poem, to get me across an abyss as a not-so-young artist who hoped to keep going; the words themselves were a kind of bridge. As that winged energy was too. Here the poem is paired with art by Shigeru Hatsuyama. His life (1897-1973) & Rilke’s (1875-1926) overlapped for three decades. I wonder if they knew of one another’s work, if either leaned against the energy of the other’s vision. I find them a delightful pairing.
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As once the winged energy of delight
carried you over childhood’s dark abysses,
now beyond your own life build the great
arch of unimagined bridges.
Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely granted
achievement can we realize the wonder.
To work with Things in the indescribable
relationship is not too hard for us;
the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,
and being swept along is not enough.
Take your practiced powers and stretch them out
until they span the chasm between two
contradictions…For the god
wants to know [herself] in you.
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{my gender change for god}
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unimagined bridges,
Holly
