Rilke’s Hands

<p>This is a book of meditative reading. Each of the sixty-one aphoristic entries aims to interpret Rilke’s poetry as a musician might play Debussy’s <i>Clair de lune</i> to transpose into the key of language the song the melody and the refrain of Rilke’s gentle disposition: his recognition of the transience of things; his acknowledgment of the vulnerability and fragility of people animals and flowers; his empathy toward those who suffer. </p><p>The cut flowers gently laid out on the garden table recovering from their death already begun in one of the<em>Sonnets to Orpheus</em> form a thread now visible now faint through most of this book. And because of the flowers the concept of gentleness forms another thread and because of gentleness hands—agents of gentleness throughout Rilke’s poetry—enfold these pages. The German word <i>leise</i> (gentle tender quiet) weaves the first thread; the second is woven by flowers then by girls’ hands then by angels the beloved the poor the dying and the dead animals birds dogs fountains things vanishings. The purpose of this essay is to experience and to examine gentleness how it shapes and pervades Rilke’s work how his poetry might gently inspire us to become more gentle people.</p>