Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell...
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, lines from "Let this Darkness Be a Bell Tower," in A YEAR WITH RILKE: DAILY READINGS FROM THE BEST OF RAINER MARIA RILKE translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows