Rilkean Heart, Rilkean Reality (This Is...)

Xtin, my friend and favorite ultra-petite foodie, sent me a link to a video of "Rilkean Heart" by the wonderful band Cocteau Twins. Cocteau Twins is a favorite, and so is Ranier Maria Rilke, the great German poet who gave the band inspiration for the song.

The link was given to me after I posted my status on Facebook. (Yes, darn it, hahah, I have a Facebook account. So sue me.) The status is a stanza off this poem:

I live my life in widening rings
which spread over earth and sky.
I may not ever complete the last one,
but that is what I will try.

I circle around God, the primordial tower,
and I circle ten thousand years long;
and I still don't know if I'm a falcon, a storm,
or an unfinished song.

(Ranier Maria Rilke, 1875-1926)

I was watching the video, and the lyrics, as it is wont of most of the group's songs, grip me like it is my reality being sang to me. (Video below from TIMOL69.)

Rilkean heart, I looked for you to give me transcendent experiences
to transport me out of self and aloneness and alienation
into a sense of oneness and connection ecstatic and magical.
I became a junkie for it. I came looking for the next high

I'm sorry I've been putting the search on the wrong place.
I understand that you're confused, feeling overwhelmed.
Well that's a feeling state from then, the reality.

One entity on the planet, becoming truly self reliant
and become connected with something beyond me.
That is where I have to go.

I still cannot get over the song. I wrote Xtin about it, feeling wondrous, bothered, and mystified at the same time, as if serendipity has come to visit me in the form of a brilliant blinding light.

Xtin was quite amazed, apparently. She knows of only a few people who have even heard of the Cocteau Twins, much less listen to them. Hah. Pity the majority. :)

Back to my own musings. Part of my unusual reaction stems from the fact that I have been re-reading Rilke lately and exchanging poems with someone who likes Rilke and poetry too. Understandable. However, the rest of my awe lies somewhere. I just cannot put a finger on...

...almost unidentifiable, like many of the most beautiful things that can only be seen, not by vision, but by faith.

Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. [La foi est de croire ce que tu ne vois pas encore, la récompense pour cette foi est de voir ce que vous croyez.] - St. Augustine

A similar post appears at Trash Radio Manila.

Pour mon grand ami ... tu étais dans mon esprit quand j'ai écrit ce post.