A Poet's Rose Poem by Sandra Feldman

The association of the rose and poetry brings to mind that Rosencavalier of poets, Rainer Maria Rilke, who wrote his own epitaph in the rose metaphor, namely: ROSE, O PURE CONTRADICTION, DELIGHT / IN BEING NO ONE'S SLEEP UNDER SO MANY / LIDS. He even wrote poems of roses in French because he felt he had exhausted the resources of German. Still, there is a puzzling coda to his devotion to the rose. He was suffering from leukemia, and he pricked his finger on a rose, which hastened his death. You could say: Oh, what a blessing! what he loved so much accompanied him in death,0R Oh, what a curse! what he had loved so faithfully betrayed him to an early death. Either/Or - Both/And. With Rilke whose whole life was committed to poetry it almost seems inevitable his poetic symbol which shaped his life would necessarily play a role in his death. But Rilke being my absolute favorite poet, I have this vexed relationship with roses. He did not curse the rose, or his suffering, or death itself. One of his last poems says PRAISE IT over a dozen time. Marina Tsvetaeva sent him a letter as he was dying, declaring, You are not just the greatest of Poets, you are Poetry Itself. I agree. And a final irony, my favorite park in my home city has a very large rose garden next to a lake.Rilke is never far from my thoughts.He makes them bloom.