i.m. Rainer Maria Rilke

Happy New Year - new sphere - horizon - haven!
This is my first letter to your new address,
- notorious region, misunderstood, unsettled -,
as clamorous and empty as the Aeolian tower;
my very first letter to you from the yesterday
in which I suddenly found myself without you,
my own homeland become one of the stars....
Shall I tell you how I heard the news ?
No earthquake or avalanche announced it,
only someone - might have been anyone - said
he'd read it in a daily paper. 'Show me the article -
where did it happen ?' 'The mountains.
(I think of pine branches in a window)
Don't you ever read newspapers?'
'The article?' 'I don't have it with me.'
...