Monday, April 18, 2022

still as trees in Spring

         
Line engraving by R. Strange, 1773, after himself, 1764, after G.F Barbieri, il Guercino, Guercino, 1591-1666, Date 1773


“Consolation of Mary with Christ Arisen” by Rainer Maria Rilke

What they felt then: is it not 

before all secrets sweet and yet still earthly: 

as he, a little pale still from the grave, 

relieved stepped up to her: 

at every point arisen.

O to her first. How were they then

Inexpressibly being healed.

Yes, they were healing, that was it. They had no need 

firmly to touch each other.

He laid for a second 

scarcely his soon to be 

eternal hand to her womanly shoulder.

And they began, 

still as trees in Spring, 

infinitely together, 

this season of their ultimate communing.

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful, ethereal, eternal. Thank you for the art and the poetry which gets closest to the inexpressible .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the comment. I wavered between adding an image of trees versus the Guercino art. Or even something more abstract. I am more challenged by the Guercino, I think.

    (I am usually turned off by - or not drawn to - European depictions of Jesus)

    ReplyDelete
  3. … and it does seem as if Rilke’s poem references this particular picture.

    ReplyDelete

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