Friday Poem

Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Today's poem is by Ranier Maria Rilke.

According to a well known and often repeated story, it was Auguste Rodin who told Rilke to go to the Jardin des Plantes  in Paris where he was to choose one animal where he was to watch, study, note its various movements and moods until he knew the animal as well as he could and then, only then, write about it. Rilke chose a panther. The result is this poem.