my love

"Poems are not . . . simply emotions . . . they are experiences. For the
sake of a single poem, you must see many cities, many people and things
. . . and know the gestures which small flowers make when they open in
the morning. You must be able to think back to streets in unknown
neighborhoods, to unexpected encounters, and to partings you have long
seen coming; to days of childhood whose mystery is still unexplained . . .;
to childhood illnesses . . . to mornings by the sea, to the sea
itself, to seas, to nights of travel . . . and it is still not enough."

Rilke