“And it is not yet enough to have memories. You must be able to forget them when they are many, and you must have the immense patience to wait until they return. For the memories themselves are not important. Only when they have changed into our very blood, into glance and gesture, and are nameless, no longer to be distinguished from ourselves — only then can it happen that in some very rare hour the first word of a poem arises in their midst and goes forth from them.”
More from Rainer Maria Rilke
“My blood is alive with many voices telling me I am made of longing.”
“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out…”
“Timeless sea breezes, that for ages have blown ancient rocks, you are purest space coming…”
“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that…”