Stephen King said something along these lines: the act of encountering a well-placed simile has the same effect on a reader as meeting an old friend. I submit that encountering a good poem is similar, even if we have never heard it before. This year, I rediscovered a poet, whom I had unfortunately forgotten until a student used this poem (found on a random poem hunt) for his entry in our class poetry slam last week. And even though Rilke isn't actually an old personal acquaintance of mine--I've only read a few of his works--I have been writing and thinking about reflection and memory in the recent past, and I found this poem fitting.
"Fire's Reflection" by Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. A. Poulin)
Perhaps it's no more than the fire's reflection
on some piece of gleaming furniture
that the child remembers so much later
like a revelation.
And if in his later life, one day
wounds him like so many others,
it's because he mistook some risk
or other for a promise.
Let's not forget the music, either,
that soon had hauled him
toward absence complicated
by an overflowing heart....
Be sure to share with me your poem, either electronically or in person
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