Palm

Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 (Prague) – 1926 (Montreux)



Interior of the hand. Sole that has come to walk
only on feelings. That faces upward
and in its mirror
receives heavenly roads, which travel
along themselves.
That has learned to walk upon water
when it scoops,
that walks upon wells,
transfiguring every path.
That steps into other hands,
changes those that are like it
into a landscape:
wanders and arrives within them,
fills them with arrival.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 22, 2023

20 sec read
610

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDECFGHIJKLD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 390
Words 69
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke — better known as Rainer Maria Rilke — was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. more…

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    "Palm" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29700/palm>.

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