“Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower” by Rainer Maria Rilke

We’ve noticed that many people have been seeking out this poem by Rilke on our website this week. It feels like a meditation and a salve for this fraught, uncertain moment in the world. So, we’re sharing it here as well. 

Rainer Maria Rilke was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist. His poem, “Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower,” is read here by Joanna Macy. It was translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows, and originally read in the On Being episode “A Wild Love for the World.” Watch a film version of this poem on our YouTube channel.