Poetry Painting Project: Day 13

ABOUT THE POETRY PAINTING PROJECT

We selected 30 poems (from the public domain) and each day for the next 30 days I will write a poem inspired by it, and Addie will paint a painting.

So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s painting and poem, inspired by a selection from Rainer Maria Rilke’s volume of poetry, The Book of Hours.

To read this poem, click here (or scroll down near the bottom of the page)


ADDIE’S PAINTING

The Comfort I Offered Once By Addie Hirschten

MY POEM

SOLITUDE

I have stood
in the dark, lonely hour,
unafraid.

I have stood
among the dark, masked angels,
towering over the evergreens,
centuries old,
in the spectered forest at the foot
of a dim moon-illumined mountain—
the mountain a word unutterable.

I have stood
on the edge of a dark ravine
and tossed a question
into the river Styx.
It tumbled down the crag
like a stone,
over and over it turned,
into an answer to itself
that was itself a question—
a hundred times over
only to fall into the black water,
with scarcely a ripple,
where it sank to the bottom—
into a question irreducible.

I have stood
in the dark, lonely hour
unafraid to ask.


OUR INSPIRATION

from THE BOOK OF HOURS
by Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. Babette Deutsch)

What will you do, God, when I die?
When I, your pitcher, broken, lie?
When l, your drink, go stale or dry?
I am your garb, the trade you ply,
you lose your meaning, losing me.

Homeless without me, you will be
robbed of your welcome, warm and sweet.
I am your sandals: your tired feet
will wander bare for want of me.

Your mighty cloak will fall away.
Your glance that on my cheek was laid
and pillowed warm, will seek, dismayed,
the comfort that I offered once—
to lie, as sunset colors fade
in the cold lap of alien stones.

What will you do, God? I am afraid.


Notes:
Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926. Born in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary.
Link to Biography: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rainer-maria-rilke
Link to Poem: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.136247/page/n31
Link to Translator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babette_Deutsch


ABOUT THE POETRY PAINTING PROJECT

For the past couple of months I have been working on a huge new secret project with my painter, Addie Hirshten, of Studio Alchemy

We selected 30 poems (from the public domain) and each day for the next 30 days I will write a poem inspired by it, and Addie will paint a painting.

Expect an outpouring of creative energy! This is the sort of big project that artists live for … where we can say what we yearn to say.  Big picture stuff. Heart wrenching stuff. I feel so inspired by the poetry we are working with AND seeing Addie’s process as well. Expect daily surprises with our posts. Expect passion. Expect love. Expect life.

Check Out Addie’s Instagram Account: www.instagram.com/alchemy.of.art.addie.hirschten/

Check out Addie’s art studio — Studio Alchemy:
studioalchemy.art/

Art is the path of the creator to his work.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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