The chance remains of another time <br />and a life that is not ours... <br />no, there is not 'more' beauty here than elsewhere - <br />but there is much beauty here, <br />for there is much beauty everywhere. <br /> <br />Waters unendingly full of life move along the old aqueducts <br />into the great city <br />and dance in the many squares over white stone basins <br />and spread out in wide spacious pools <br />and murmur by day <br />and lift up their murmuring to the night <br />that is large and starry here and soft with winds. <br /> <br />And gardens are here, unforgettable avenues <br />and flights of stairs, stairs designed by Michelangelo, <br />stairs that are built after the pattern <br />of downward-gliding waters - broadly bringing forth <br />step out of step in their descent <br />like wave after wave. <br /> <br />Through such impressions one collects oneself, <br />wins oneself back again, <br />and learns slowly to recognize the very few things <br />in which the eternal endures <br />that one can love.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rilke-in-rome/
