Diane Vogel Ferri’s full-length poetry book is Everything is Rising (Luchador Press). Her latest novel is No Life But This: A Novel of Emily Warren Roebling (Atbosh Media) Her essays have been published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Scene Magazine, and Yellow Arrow Journal, among others. Her poems can be found in numerous journals such as Wend Poetry, Blue Heron Review, Rubbertop Review, and Poet Lore. Her previous publications are Liquid Rubies (poetry), The Volume of Our Incongruity (poetry), and The Desire Path (novel). She has done many poetry readings locally. Diane’s essay, “I Will Sing for You” was featured at the Cleveland Humanities Festival in 2018. A former teacher, she holds an M.Ed from Cleveland State University and is a founding member of Literary Cleveland. Her poem, For You, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net 2023

Saturday, October 18, 2008

A Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke


Why am I reaching again for the brushes?
When I paint your portrait, God,
nothing happens.
But I can choose to feel you.

At my senses' horizon
you appear hesitantly,
like scattered islands.

Yet standing here, peering out,
I'm all the time seen by you.

The choruses of angels use up all of heaven.
There's no more room for you
in all that glory. You're living
in your very last house.

All creation holds its breath
listening within me,
because, to hear you
I keep silent.
from the Book of Hours

3 comments:

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

This is lovely. Thank you for posting it.

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

Oh, and yes, I write (unpublished so far) novels. It is the truest vocation I have in my life, the one thing that feels like the reason I was created.

Choralgrrl said...

Wow. Gorgeous. LOVE Rilke.