A devotee to the trees in life and in death

Earth, isn’t this what you want?

To arise in us, invisible?

Is it not your dream, to enter us so wholly there’s nothing left outside us to see?

What, if not transformation, is your deepest purpose?

Earth, my love,

I want that too. Believe me,

No more of your springtimes are needed to win me over – even one flower is more than enough. Before I was named I belonged to you.

I seek no other law but yours, and know I can trust the death you will bring.

Excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Ninth Duino Elegy (translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows)