poem

Go to the Limits of Your Longing

Written by Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated and read by Joanna Macy

Listen

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 i

To become human
is to become visible
while carrying
what is hidden
as a gift to others.

—David Whyte