Go to the Limits of Your Longing
Go to the Limits of Your Longing
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
Written by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Joanna Macy, Book of Hours
About This Poem:
Published: Written between 1899 - 1903
Why The Poet?
Rainer Maria Rilke was a Bohemian-Austrian poet who wrote about the emotional experiences that make us human. His work feels both deeply personal and somehow universal at the same time.
Why The Poem?
"Go to the Limits of Your Longing" is Rilke's invitation to stop protecting yourself from intensity. He's not advocating for recklessness or seeking out suffering. He's saying when life brings you something powerful, don't run from it. Let it move through you. Stay with it. Nothing lasts forever, not the ecstasy and not the pain.
We chose this poem because it speaks to anyone who's been afraid of their own feelings. Many of us spend energy trying to stay in control, keeping ourselves moderate and safe. Rilke argues the opposite: go all the way into your longing, your grief, your joy. Trust that you can survive the intensity and that refusing to feel fully is its own kind of death.
