Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII

By Rainer Maria Rilke

Want the Change

Be inspired by the flame 

Where everything shines, As it disappears.

The Artist, When sketching

Loves nothing so much as the curve

Of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness, Has congealed

Is it safer to be gray and numb?

What turns hard becomes rigid, And is easily shattered

Pour yourself like a fountain

Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking

Finishes often at the start

And with ending begins

Every happiness is the child of a separation

It did not think it could survive

And Daphne becoming a laurel

Dares you to become the wind.