All That Has Never Been Spoken

June 21, 2010 · by Joanna Paterson · in

I found these words as I was preparing for the writing retreat last week.

I shared them as part of my introduction to that week of writing and thought I’d send them out this Monday too, wishing you a week of flowing words :-)

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.

I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(Photo: Down to the Sea – the beach at Kingsbarns, by Joanna Paterson on Flickr)