Seeing Farther Into Life: A Deep Reflection on Rilke’s “Moving Forward”
What if your inner life is quietly expanding, making the world feel wider, clearer, and more alive?
Moving Forward
Rainer Maria Rilke
The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
That I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can’t reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
in the ponds broken off from the sky
my feeling sinks, as if standing on fishes.
Reflection
Rilke’s poem invites us into the subtle, mysterious widening that happens inside us as we grow. The “deep parts” of ourselves don’t move in straight lines—they open like riverbanks, making room for new clarity. Rilke suggests that when we evolve inwardly, the outer world transforms with us: paintings reveal more, language feels both powerful and insufficient, and our senses lift us toward something larger than thought. His images—wind, sky, ponds, birds—remind us that growth is both grounding and disorienting. We are expanding beyond what we once understood, stepping into a deeper, more intuitive way of seeing.
What new “opening” or widening in your life has helped you see the world differently?