The shape of what you lived.

REMEMBERING

And you wait. You wait for the one thing
that will change your life,
make it more than it is—
something wonderful, exceptional,
stones awakening, depths opening to you.

In the dusky bookstalls
old books glimmer gold and brown.
You think of lands you journeyed through,
of paintings and a dress once worn
by a woman you never found again.

And suddenly you know: that was enough.
You rise and there appears before you
in all its longings and hesitations
the shape of what you lived.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

7 thoughts on “The shape of what you lived.”

After reading the first stanza, I was sure it was Mary Oliver. It’s a lovely poem by a poet I rarely read, and clearly need to explore.

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Thanks first for the picture of Rainer Rilke, my favorite poet from long-ago days studying German literature in college. I had never found a picture of him. Lastly with many decades in between thanks for the wisdom of the poem that, although I still dream of adventures never occurred and countries never visited, my traveling days are probably over. I am the shape of what I lived and interesting it was. It is enough.

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This is a beautifully expressed poem. The recollection “and a dress once worn
by a woman you never found again” is very poignant. I have reached a point where I am probably the shape of what I have lived too. No regrets: one cannot get around to doing everything and dreaming remains being a fun thing to do.

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Ah, my heart! 💕 Beautiful. Thank you, Gretchen x

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Leonid Pasternak was the father of Boris, of Dr. Zhivago fame. The elder Pasternak experienced some sort of sickness or ailment for which he decided to go to Germany for treatment, bringing his wife and daughters, and they ended up staying. Apparently, the Pasternaks were good friends with the Schmorells, and there’s a famous picture of the Schmorell family probably when Alex was about 15 all around a picnic table with the Pasternaks.

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