Mark burrows — Heart-Work & the Art of Loving. Rilke’s Sonnet to Orpheus

The following is a fragment of a day event at Meditatio Centre in London. These sonnets by the poet Rilke stand as one of the masterpieces of German poetry. Written near the end of his life in a brief period of intense creativity, the poems invite us to open our lives to the depths and to find new courage to indwell the world with creative passion. Mark guides the exploration of these poems as an invitation to answer the poet’s call to “do the heart-work” with the memories and experiences of our lives, since—as he suggests—“the world, the more we observe it, wants to flourish in love.” As do we! The question is, how? This meditative day will engage this question, offering participants a chance to engage these remarkable poems slowly, and engage them in the depths. We will use a new translation of these poems by the retreat leader.