The Panther by RM Rilke

One of the great modern german poets, died in 1926, this poem echoes certain feelings I have about a lost friend.

The Panther
A Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else.
It seems to him there are a thousand bars;
and behind the bars, no world.

As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,
the movement of his powerful soft strides
is like a ritual dance around a center
in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.

Only at times, the curtain of the pupils lifts, quietly—
An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone.

Related posts:

Related posts:

1. I beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart – Rainer Maria Rilke
2. Projection – Alice Walker
3. Now I become Myself – May Sarton
4. Mary Oliver – Dogfish
5. The Eve of Destruction

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