If you notice that solitude is great, <br />rejoice because of this. <br />For what would solitude be <br />that had no greatness? There is <br />but one solitude, and that is great, <br />and not easy to bear, <br />and to almost everybody come hours <br />when they would gladly erxchange it for any sort of intercourse, <br />however banal and cheap; with the first comer, <br />with the unworthiest... <br /> <br />but perhaps those are the very hours <br />when solitude grows, for <br />its growing is as painful as the growing of boys <br />and sad as the beginning of springtimes. <br /> <br />To be solitary, the way one was solitary as a child, <br />when the grownups went around involved with things <br />that seemed important and big <br />because they themselves looked so busy <br />and because one comprehended nothing of their doings. <br /> <br />Be close to things; they will not desert you; <br />there are the nights still <br />and the winds that go through the trees <br />and across many lands; <br />among things and with the animals <br />everything is still full of happening <br />in which you may participate; <br /> <br />and children are still the way you were as a child, <br />sad like that and happy, <br />- and if you think of your childhood <br />you live among them again. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />(Abstracted from Rilke's letters to a young poet)<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0007-rilke-on-solitude/
