Whyte
Self Portrait
Mar 23 2011 Filed in: Poem
This poem came to mind to me as Michael/Sundance was telling us about his commitments and path. It speaks of the unqualified Yes, that is the call to this level of being available and open to love. Or...So it seems to me. Other thoughts?
It doesn't interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.
I have been told, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.
It doesn't interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.
I have been told, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.
On Faith
Mar 23 2011 Filed in: Poem
Mark W. said something about faith last evening
that made me think about this...
Especially as faith is so often longed for, and so hard to hold sometimes.
Sometimes, just wanting to have faith is the necessary opening
I want to write about faith:
About the way the moon
Rises over cold snow
Night after night
Faithful
Even in its fading from fullness
Slowly becoming
That last curling and impossible
Sliver of light
Before the final darkness.
But I have no faith myself.
I do not give it the smallest entry.
Let this, then, my small poem
Like a new moon
Slender and barely open
Be the first prayer
That opens me to faith.
~David Whyte
that made me think about this...
Especially as faith is so often longed for, and so hard to hold sometimes.
Sometimes, just wanting to have faith is the necessary opening
I want to write about faith:
About the way the moon
Rises over cold snow
Night after night
Faithful
Even in its fading from fullness
Slowly becoming
That last curling and impossible
Sliver of light
Before the final darkness.
But I have no faith myself.
I do not give it the smallest entry.
Let this, then, my small poem
Like a new moon
Slender and barely open
Be the first prayer
That opens me to faith.
~David Whyte
Start Close In
Jan 12 2011 Filed in: Other Poets
This is the poem I referenced in my talking this evening. If there is interest I’ll find the 10min section where DW discusses this.
Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first thing close in,
the step you don't want to take.
Start with the ground you know,
the pale ground beneath your feet,
your own way of starting the conversation.
Start with your own question,
give up on other people's questions,
don't let them smother something simple.
To find another's voice follow your own voice,
wait until that voice becomes a private ear
listening to another. Start right now
take a small step you can call your own
don't follow someone else's heroics,
be humble and focused, start close in,
don't mistake that other for your own.
Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first thing close in,
the step you don't want to take.
~ David Whyte
Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first thing close in,
the step you don't want to take.
Start with the ground you know,
the pale ground beneath your feet,
your own way of starting the conversation.
Start with your own question,
give up on other people's questions,
don't let them smother something simple.
To find another's voice follow your own voice,
wait until that voice becomes a private ear
listening to another. Start right now
take a small step you can call your own
don't follow someone else's heroics,
be humble and focused, start close in,
don't mistake that other for your own.
Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first thing close in,
the step you don't want to take.
~ David Whyte