Ignorant before the heavens of my life, <br />I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness <br />of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still. <br />As if I didn't exist. Do I have any <br />share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with <br />their pure effect? Does my blood's ebb and flow <br />change with their changes? Let me put aside <br />every desire, every relationship <br />except this one, so that my heart grows used to <br />its farthest spaces. Better that it live <br />fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than <br />as if protected, soothed by what is near.<br /><br />Rainer Maria Rilke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ignorant-before-the-heavens-of-my-life/
