"NO FEELING IS FINAL…” (RAINER MARIA RILKE)

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The movement and changing feeling I see reflected in this large piece makes me think of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Go to the Limits of your Longing.” The part of the poem I think of is below, and the full text is available here. While I don’t find the godliness in other parts of the poem speaking to me, I have found these words intensely useful in bad times, as a reminder to try to live fully in spite of feeling constrained and anxious.

“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.”

48h x 48w x 1.5d (inches); ink, wood, cotton, paper, acrylic on wood-backed canvas