This volume marks the first translation of these prayer-poems into English. Originally written in 1899, Rilke wrote them upon returning to Germany from his first trip to Russia. His experience of the East shaped him profoundly. He found himself entranced by Orthodox churches and monasteries, above all by the icons that seemed to him like flames glowing in dark spaces. He intended these poems as icons of sorts, gestures that could illumine a way for seekers in the darkness. As Rilke here writes,...
These poems remind us that “home” is a way of being in this world. It finds expression in the inner light that carries us through dark seasons and in what inspires us to risk life in the face of death. Many of these poems come from a long looking at the familiar and the ordinary, a patient listening for traces of a beauty that might still save us. They ponder the resilience that lies at the heart of the natural world, as well as in our desire to thrive amid the distractions that pressure us in...
