There’s No Living Any Words Long

Go ahead and seek the answers,
Whether you can live them or not.
Answers are all words and numbers,
Insofar as you can learn them,

And you’re a flicker in the flesh
That can live with or without them
And will pass along without them,
So go ahead, why not seek them.

No advice from an old poet,
No matter how charming, should be
Determinative. Old poets
Are just skillful with the language,

And all contradict each other.
Rilke was gone by fifty-one.