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My Life is Not This Vertical Hour

Another attempt at bringing the ever-elusive Rilke to bear, this time set to joyful singing. I still cannot grasp Rilke’s message, although I sense something deep and fundamental in his haunting poetry. More on Rilke at this site (internal link)

By Gaelin McAllister Meyer, Heartsong Records, 2006

My life is not this vertical hour

in which you find me in such haste

I am a tree in front of my own background

I am only but one of my many mouths

and the one which is the first to close

I am the silence between two sounds

that only with difficulty grow used to one another

for the tone of death also wishes to be heard

but in the darkness of the interval

they make peace with one another, trembling

and the song remains beautiful