A poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, read by Vandana Shiva, collectively animated by @the.impossible.future and presented by Daniel Wahl
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Daniel Wahl, author of “Designing Regenerative Cultures“, of the Medium blog “Design for Sustainability” and coordinator of the Gaia Education ‘s EDE program that greatly inspired The Impossible Future, tells us how the poem resonates in present times and what it says about our future.
The first time I heard Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem ‘Du Dunkelnder Grund’ was when I co-facilitated a training for educators in ‘The Work That Reconnects’ with Joanna Macy in the mountains North of Madrid in 2003.
In her early career, Joanna had translated Rilke’s ‘Book of Hours’ into English. During the training Joanna shared this remarkable poem in her own voice which has the resonant vibrational quality of a true Dharma teacher. I still remember how Rilke’s lines struck me.
Ever since, this poem has been with me, like a prayer. I have sat in many council circles and participated in many ceremonies, during which – out of silence and as if requested by the Earth herself – I felt moved to share this poem.
Dear darkening ground,
you’ve endured so patiently the walls we’ve built,
please 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 for 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 just need a little more time,
because I am going to Love the things
as no one has thought to love them,
until they’re real and worthy of you.
The powerful lines “before you become forest again, and water and widening wilderness, in that hour of inconceivable terror when you take back your names from all things”.
Rather than filling me with fear, this image leaves me with a sense of trust in life’s inherent capacity and potential for regeneration.
“Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made personal, merely personal feeling. This is what is the matter with us: we are bleeding at the roots because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars. Love has become a grinning mockery because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the Tree of Life and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table.”
- D. H. Lawrence
I believe that Rilke’s poem is prophetic with regard to why he is asking for “a little more time. Just give me a little more time.” He is asking for more time to enter into a deep relationship of care “so I may love the things until they are real, and ripe and worthy of you.” To me this speaks of the story of interbeing, of – as the great poet Mary Oliver called it: “coming home into the family of things” – the family of life.
During the above mentioned training with Joanna Macy she also told me: “Daniel, always remember when you are teaching or you are stepping on a stage to give a talk, as an expression of life, you have the authority of 3.8 billion years of life’s evolution from which to speak. Speak for the voiceless and for all of life!” The strength of Rilke’s poetry is that he understood himself as a vessel through which life herself could do the writing.
Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and food sovereignity advocate, gives voice to Rilke’s poem in our animated short film. Thanks Vandana!
A note of gratitude to Martín Haas and the amazing team of The Future Im/Possible:
I first met Martín in 2011 when he participated in the Ecovillage Design Education programme I helped to organize and teach in a magical place in the mountains of Mallorca. The holistic analysis of the root causes of the problem and the whole systems design approach to creating community based solutions to the mess we got ourselves in that this course offers were part of the early inspiration for Martín and friends to create a documentary.
Years later, after Martín had returned back to his native Argentina, he contacted me to tell me about The Future Im/Possible documentary project. He shared an early soundtrack of the narrator's voice for the whole film and we talked about how to evolve it from there and I helped with some introductions to people who's message Martín and the team wanted to feature in the documentary. With the pandemic the project has morphed again into a network of collaborators evolving this amazing documentary together. Rather than raising funds and waiting for them in order to finish the project the team has started to share their work so far and the documentary will be only part of a wider impulse that will also include a book and an education programme.
This is going to be a powerful catalytic impulse in support of the ReGeneration rising all over the world now. In 2018, gave a talk at Findhorn on 'Human and Planetary Health: Ecosystems Restoration at the Dawn of the Century of Regeneration' (see video below). I ended the talk with Rilke's poem 'Dear Darkening Ground'. I was delighted when Martín shared with me the other day that The Future Im/Possible' team had decided to create a short animation to accompany the voice of Vandana Shiva reading this powerful poem. I feel grateful to have been asked to share this reflection. ¡Gracias Martín! ¡Viva la vida!- Daniel Wahl
Credits
“Dear darkening ground”
Voice: VANDANA SHIVA | Directors: TONI BALSEIRO, MARTIN HAAS | Production: BÁRBARA TERASANI, FELICITAS SOLDI | Animators: ALEJANDRO LIBONATTI, BAUTISTA GOITY, DANIELA GAUDIOSO, GABINO CALÓNICO, IGNACIO SANTONJA, LUCIA CHANLLIO, MAILÉN BRITEZ, MARI CARRANZA, NAHUEL ZABALZA, RAÚL AVILA GUERRERO, ROBERTO SEGOND, RODRIGO CABRAL, MARIO BERTAZZO, GERMÁN KATZ, MAXIMILIANO TABARES, HARRISON WILLIAMS, ORNELA VICENTINI | Pots-production lead & color: HUMBERTO PAYTUVI / PIMBA VFX | Compositors: ANA BOUR, VENJAMIN VILLALOBOS, DANIEL DI PAOLA, HUMBERTO PAYTUVI, SANTIAGO GUERRERO, SASCHA BONANNO, VANESA IASSOGNA, FERNANDO JERSON, ELEAZAR H. FIGUEROA E., HARRISON WILLIAMS, BORJA HUERTAS, THOMAS XAVIER ROGER | Translation: EMIKO NAKAMURA, ROMINA PAULA, VICTORIA LIENDO | Piano: NACHO ABAD | Strings and winds: MUHAMMAD HABIBI | Music & sound design: AHRE STUDIO + MIL CABLES | Mix: MIL CABLES | Editing: EMILIANO FARDAUS
With the support of: