Stones and Stars

Sunset

Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colors
which it passes to a row of ancient trees.
You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you
one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth.

leaving you, not really belonging to either,
not so hopelessly dark as that house that is silent,
not so unswervingly given to the eternal as that thing
that turns to a star each night and climbs-

leaving you (it is impossible to untangle the threads)
your own life, timid and standing high and growing,
so that, sometimes blocked in, sometimes reaching
out,
one moment your life is a stone in you, and the next,
a star.

By Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Robert Bly

Poem

An old friend came back to visit yesterday. Out of nowhere, a poem I heard often as a child started swirling through my mind. I've been thinking of it so much over the past 24 hours that I wanted to share it with you, too.

When I was very young, my rabbi in San Diego would frequently read this during the service. I loved the rhythm and the sound of the words, I remember getting lost in their cadance and song, and somewhere along the way, it embedded itself in my memory and my self. Being here, it has come to mind again. I don't know the name of the poem...I can't remember. And there is a possibility that I have not rewritten it exactly, perfectly correctly. I apologize to Judy Chicago for this in advance.

For today, it is my meditation in northern Uganda. Love to you all, and more soon as I get settled in Gulu.
******

And the all that has divided us will merge.
And then compassion will be wedded to power.
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind.

And then both men and women will be gentle.
And then both women and men will be strong.

And then no person will be subject to another's will.
And then all will be rich and free and varied.
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many.

And then all will share equally in the earth's abundance.
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old.
And then all will nourish the young.

And then all will cherish life's creatures.
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the earth.
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.

-- Judy Chicago