A Rilke poem for your Friday...

A child spends his first week away at camp, and his parents cannot help but notice a change as he returns home. There is a healthy maturing, a gain of self-assurance, a sense of strength. Haven't we all noticed the change in ourselves after we venture out?

This poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, shared by a friend this week, speaks of satisfaction and serenity after stretching wings and facing fears.

Dove that ventured outside, flying far from the dovecote:
housed and protected again, one with the day, the night,
knows what serenity is, for she has felt her wings
pass through all distance and fear in the course of her wanderings.

The doves that remained at home, never exposed to loss,
innocent and secure, cannot know tenderness;
only the won-back heart can ever be satisfied: free,
through all it has given up, to rejoice in its mastery.

Being arches itself over the vast abyss.
Ah the ball that we dared, that we hurled into infinite space,
doesn't it fill our hands differently with its return:
heavier by the weight of where it has been.

My best to you for a week of healthy venturing. It's Poetry Friday, so join the gang at Tricia's blog, 

Miss Rumphius Effect.