——-After Rilke
You only, only You exist.
We go away, until at once
our vanishing is so vast
that You appear: an Instant,
beautiful, in which Love rises
or distills itself in labor’s raptures.
I am Yours, Yours only, however time
might wear me away, bidden
by You, to You again. And in between,
the garland’s suspended in happenstance;
but, see, everything is celebration
if You bear it up, bear it up, bear it up.
Daniel Tobin is the author of nine books of poems. His poetry has won many awards, among them the Massachusetts Book Award, the Julia Ward Howe Prize, and fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. His latest book, The Mansions (Four Way), is a trilogy of long poems that form a single design.
Photo by Tasha Kostyuk on Unsplash
