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Returning to Rilke, a poem by Dan Carpenter


Returning to Rilke

who was all about loneliness –
seeking it, that elusive core
whose perfection was denied the artist
by human noise . . .

Returning once again
to the exalting struggle
to comprehend him
is an exquisite loneliness in itself.

Who, to steal the poet's language,
is there
in all of family or friends
to even begin to care
about this quest
to rise to that plunge?

Who comes off the golf course
out of the nightclub
mall or boudoir
to stand alongside the poor reader
even to watch him watch him
wrestle with the angel?

by Dan Carpenter


Bio: Dan Carpenter is an Indianapolis native and resident and a freelance writer. He has published poems in Poetry East, Illuminations, Pearl, Xavier Review, Southern Indiana Review, Maize, Tipton Poetry Journal, Flying Island and other journals. He also has published two books of poems, The Art He’d Sell for Love (Cherry Grove, 2015) and More Than I Could See (Restoration, 2009).