In memory of my brother, Larry Gruntfest
June 6, 1944 - December 11, 2011
You, Beloved, who are all the gardens I have ever gazed at, longing. An open window in a country house-- , and you almost stepped out, pensive, to meet me. Streets that I chanced upon,-- you had just walked down them and vanished. And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors were still dizzy with your presence and, startled, gave back my too-sudden image. Who knows? Perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us yesterday, separate, in the evening...
From 'Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke'