Rodin and Rilke and Destiny

I've been reading a lot of Rilke lately, and was remembering that in university I wrote a monograph about the relationship between Rodin and Rilke (Rilke was Rodin's personal secretary for a period.) It was Rodin who suggested that, as a cure for his writer's block, Rilke go to the Jardin des Plantes and study birds and plants and animals and write about them. Rilke's magnificient New Poems was the result, including his poems about the panther, the swan and the flamingos. Rodin's solution to not being able to create was to sit down and work. "Travailler, travailler, travailler!".

Part of my monograph was to chose several of Rilke's short poems, write my versions of them, then pair them with Rodin sculptures. I'm including one small poem with this post.

For over 30 years I've longed to see Rodin's work. I was in a local bookstore the other day and, lo and behold, I saw a poster saying the the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton is having an exhibit of Rodin's work until September. So I'll be there soon--I can't explain how much this means to me.

Make your home out of everything in this world,
no matter how hard.

What makes you think you can pick and choose
the strange stones of your destiny?

(Copyright 1975-2006, Allan Cooper)