Foundations Fall Retreat  

Four Directions 

Earth and Metal Elements 

Dear darkening ground,

You’ve endured so patiently the walls we’ve built,

Perhaps you’ll give the cities one more hour

And grant the churches and cloisters two.

And those that labor – maybe you’ll let their work

grip them another five hours, or seven.

Before you become forest again, and water, and

       Widening wilderness

In that hour of inconceivable terror

When you take back your name from all things.

Just give me a little more time!

I want to love the things

As no one has thought to love them,

Until they’re real and ripe and worthy of you.

 I want only seven days, seven

On which no one has ever written himself –

Seven pages of solitude.

There will be a book that includes these pages,

And she who takes it in her hands

Will sit staring at it a long time,

Until she feels that she is being held

And you are writing.

 -- Ranier Maria Rilke