a mighty will paralyzed

"The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke

His gaze against the sweeping of the bars
has grown so weary, it can hold no more.
To him, there seem to be a thousand bars
and back behind those thousand bars no world.

The soft the supple step and sturdy pace,
that in the smallest of all circles turns,
moves like a dance of strength around a core
in which a mighty will is standing stunned.

Only at times the pupil’s curtain slides
up soundlessly — . An image enters then,
goes through the tensioned stillness of the limbs —
and in the heart ceases to be.

- English translation by Stanley Appelbaum

This is one of Rilke's most popular poems.  I have returned to it many times. 

In my thirties, I think, I, out of the blue, decided the panther was my 'power animal', that something about a panther reflected something about me.  Maybe I went to some kind of workshop at which everyone was encouraged to choose a power animal. In a guided meditation, I 'got' that the panther was my power animal. This happned long before I met Rilke's panther.

This morning, I woke up just at dawn. When I first looked outside my window, it was a night sky.  I tossed around a bit, checking to see if I was awake for the day, glanced outside again, just seconds later, and it was day.  And as I lay there, in a lickety split quick moment, I thought of this poem, seeing, for the first time, that this poem might make a good metaphor for how the will of the people seems somewhat paralyzed these days.

Our politicians no longer work for the people. Our politicians ignore the will of the people.

So many Americans have flashes of hope, hope that things will get better. A curtain slides open, the hope pierces people's hearts and then it dissipates. Hope gone.