Probe the depths

Probe the depths

from which your

life springs..

This Rilke's advice

To the young poet..

So we probe

Looking for tools

For our reach

To those places..

Those happy times

Seem to float

Uplift without the

Probe we wish..

A downdraft may

More utility gain..

Stumbling mistakes

Clouded passages

Some of which

We still flee..

Yet with intent

Courageous grasp

A sudden surge

Brings us close

To the answers

We are advised

To seek…

My only advice for you is this. Go within yourself and probe the depths from which your life springs, and there at its source you'll find the answer to the question of whether you must write. Accept this answer, just as you hear it, without hesitation. It may be revealed that you are called to be an artist. Then take this lot upon you, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without asking for any external reward. For the creative artist must be a world for himself, and find everything within himself—and in nature, to which he is devoted.

Paris, February 17, 1903

Letters to a Young Poet