Tracy Ryan

Where is there for this inside

an outside? On what kind of ache

do we lay such linen?

What heaven’s reflected in this,

in the inland lake

of these open roses,

so insouciant: see

how at liberty and loose they are,

as if no trembling hand

could ever spill them.

They can hardly contain

themselves; many of them

are gorged and overflow

from their interior

into the days that ever more

fully close over till the whole summer

becomes a room, a room within a dream.

– Translation from the German of Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke 

Tracy Ryan is a Western Australian poet who has also lived for long periods overseas. Her most recent book of poems is The Water Bearer (Fremantle Press, 2018).