Strait Is the Gate

“Art is a thing that is too big and too heavy for a single life, and even those who have reached a ripe old age are only beginners.”

—Rainer Maria Rilke to Lou Andreas-Salome, August 11, 1903

Art’s too much for a single life,

René proclaimed when 28

(youth is wasted on the young,

as GBS* and Oscar say).

Narrow the way and strait the gate

leading to life so few shall find;

wide to destruction the freeway

flows; many are for that designed.†

This is in art especially true,

which cuts its teeth on silly strife.

Strive not thus wild to make it new,

as Ezra did—it pained his wife

(and René, too—perplexing Lou).

Now I’ve attained this ripe old age,

I feel at last I’ve earned a stage.

Remnants of the Bastille on Boulevard Henri VI in Paris

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

*GBS = George Bernard Shaw.

† Matthew 7:13-14 (KJV):

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.