This was the last book I remember reading in public before the pandemic shut us down - I sat in the Brookline OTTO and had a slice (maybe two) before riding the Green Line home. I don't think this experience had any effect on how I read this book, which is a short collection of Rilke's poetry and prose.
Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties by Rainer Maria Rilke (February 2020)
The one piece I noted for rereading was "Blood Remembering", which if I recall correctly made a point that some experiences become so embedded into us that it's like the memory circulates forever in our bloodstream. Based on my notes, it seems to be a theme that comes up more than once in the collection. Rilke notes that with patience people can first forget, then welcome the return of memory in a different form; the memory that swims through our veins is the one that is ready to come forward in verse.
I read this book so long ago that I checked a few reviews to get a sense of the work. The common complaint seemed to center around the commentary provided by John J.L. Mood, who assembled the work. I gathered that the average reader would prefer Rilke without outside interference. The message is loud and clear; it is for the best, I think, not to add much more.
TOA Rating: Three editorials out of four
