Buddha In Glory

Rick Mobbs had a Rilke quote on his blog this morning. He seems to like German poets. Rainier Marie Rilke wrote both verse and very lyrical prose; my kind of writer.

Glenn

Buddha in Glory


Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet--
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

Rainer Maria Rilke

He wrote his own epitaph:

Rose, oh pure contradiction, joy
of being No-one's sleep, under so
many lids.