Mark Burrows
Check out Mark Burrow’s articles, Attention is the Beginning of Devotion and Seeing the World As If For the First Time.
Journeying by Heart: Rainer Maria Rilke on Solitude and Intimacy
Recorded August 31, 2022
Over the last several years of “lockdown” and social-distancing brought on by the Corona pandemic, we have found ourselves more or less isolated as a society, unable to come into close contact with each other and often fearful of the very intimacy we crave—and need—for our mental and spiritual health. In this gathering, we will explore several remarkable letters in which Rilke explores what he called “Einsamkeit,” variously translated into English either as “solitude” or as “loneliness”— the difference, of course, is not insignificant. In this, as in so many important things in our lives, our capacity to find an inner grounding for our lives is crucial, particularly when we find ourselves alone or afraid. We’ll turn to several poems in which Rilke invites us to transform the hurry and worry that so often consume us. We’ll also consider how “living the questions” allows us to embrace our lives with greater curiosity and compassion.
Mark Burrows
Mark S. Burrows is a writer, scholar, teacher, and award-winning poet and translator of German poetry. His recent popular works include a collection of poems, The Chance of Home (2018), and two best-selling collections of poems inspired by the writings of the medieval mystic Eckhart: Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart and Meister Eckhart’s Book of Secrets (both co-written with Jon M. Sweeney; 2017 & 2019). His translation of Rilke’s Prayers of a Young Poet marked the first English publication of poems Rilke later gathered as the opening section of The Book of Hours. His poems and translations have appeared in more than 30 journals, internationally, and he currently serves as Poetry Editor for the journals Spiritus and ARTS. Mark is past president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. His forthcoming book on Rilke, A Wiser Way: Living Your (Deepest) Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke, is forthcoming in 2023, along with a collection of the poems of Hilde Domin. He lives and writes in Camden, ME.
