I am Much Too Alone In This World, Rainier Maria Rilke

I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone
enough
to truly consecrate the hour.
I am much too small in this world, yet not small
enough
to be to you just object and thing,
dark and smart.
I want my free will and want it accompanying
the path which leads to action;
and want during times that beg questions,
where something is up,
to be among those in the know,
or else be alone.
I Am Much Too Alone in This World, Yet Not Alone, st. 1 (as translated by Annemarie S. Kidder)

More of Rainer: A Walk

As promised, more from Rainer Maria Rilke:

Already my gaze is upon the hill, the sunny one,
at the end of the path which I've only just begun.
So we are grasped, by that which we could not grasp,
at such great distance, so fully manifest—

and it changes us, even when we do not reach it,
into something that, hardly sensing it, we already are;
a sign appears, echoing our own sign...
But what we sense is the falling winds.

Spaziergang (A Walk) (March 1924)

Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke (1960)

I am generally not one to enjoy poetry. I rarely understand the depths of the words and intentions. But German poet Rainer Maria Wilke's writings have captivated me. I do not know his beliefs, his experiences, his motivations, or anything else that made him who he was. But when I read his words, my heart responds. Expect to hear more from him in the coming months.

What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.

--Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke (1960)

(I know this is not a poem, but if you read in the future, you will read some of Mr. Rilke's actual poems)