I still want to learn,
I want to know if I exist.

“[Is the sea there? …]” by Pablo Neruda, trans. William O’Daly

How do I start this day,
I who am unsure
of how my life has happened
or how to proceed
amid this warm and steady sweetness?

Albert Garcia, from “August Morning”

My own heart, broken like bones.

“Inside” by Jackie Kay

[The inevitable conclusion is
That the thoroughly studied field will certainly shine
Forever afterwards, on its own, like love.]
I tell you it will give forth light like the sky
And reflect in all directions like the mind cherishing
The studious glory of a seeded dandelion scattering
Its brilliant wind of stars before the sun.

Pattiann Rogers, from “Investigative Logic in a Study of Love”

(via weissewiese)

Alone over the land
song hallows and heals.

Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. Edward Snow), from “Sonnets to Orpheus” (I, 19)

But now it is still light and the blackbirds are singing
as if their voices are the only scissors left in this world.

Jennifer Grotz, from “Poppies”

I sat on a gray stone bench
ringed with the ingenue faces
of pink and white impatiens
and placed my grief
in the mouth of language,
the only thing that would grieve with me.

“When I Am Asked” by Lisel Mueller

[And if the earthly should forget you,
say to the silent loam: I flow.]
To the rushing water speak: I am.

Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. Edward Snow), from “Sonnets to Orpheus” (II, 29)

[Lover, there is no more land,
no more West.] There is no place for you to stay.

“Cartographer” by DéLana R.A. Dameron (via fluttering-slips)