Rainer Maria Rilke - June 6, Sunday Fun & Chair Class

I keep track of what I read to classes and when I read what I’ve chosen. My books are filled with sticky notes that include dates and class names, often with observations about why I’ve chosen what I’ve chosen. Yesterday I pulled out a favorite Rilke collection and noticed, I almost never read Rilke in the Spring and Summer. Maybe he feels dark, and Catholic, and good for the ending of the year. Not sure. But I found this lovely poem, and it felt just right for a Spring/Summer day after planting an apple tree in my garden.

The Apple Orchard (II)

The trees, like those of Dürer,

bear the weight of a hundred days of labor

in their heavy, ripening fruit.

They serve with endless patience to teach

how even that which exceeds all measure

must be taken up and given away,

as we, through long years,

quietly grow toward the one thing we can be.