The hour is striking so close above me,

so clear and sharp,

that all my senses ring with it.

I feel now there is a power in me

to grasp and give shape to my world.

I know that nothing has ever been real

without my beholding it.

All becoming has needed me.

My looking ripens things

and they come toward me, to meet and be met.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows