David Whyte
David Whyte
David Whytewas an English professional footballer who played as a striker...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
art retreat impossible
Poetry is the art of overhearing ourselves say things from which it is impossible to retreat.
understanding weakness faculty
Vulnerability is not a weakness but a faculty for understanding.
despair abandoned interest
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.
inspirational disappointment self
Being young and trying to catch a glimpse of the depths, of the true self, of the soul, or whatever human beings have called it over the centuries, we often find ourselves surrounded by bossy, hectoring voices trying to short-circuit our personal experience by super-imposing their own disappointments. Much of this bossiness masquerades as an education.
art eye people
The workplace needs the poet's gift. But the poet also needs to be educated about the workplace. You're not just coming in to do your art, you're actually making yourself vulnerable. You yourself are not God's gift to truth. You have to hazard yourself in their world, especially because you're inviting people to do the same. It's all about become visible, becoming incarnate, becoming here and now and yet with our eyes on a future horizon; holding the conversation you were meant to hold.
self joy doorways
To feel a full and untrammeled joy is to have become fully generous; to allow our selves to be joyful is to have walked through the doorway of fear, the dropping away of the anxious worried self...the vulnerability of happiness felt suddenly as a strength, a solace and a source, the claiming of our place in the living conversation...
mean lovely steps
Shyness means you are in the hallway of a greater presence. You just don't know how to take the conversation another step. It's a lovely indication.
bird waiting cooking
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. The kettle is singing even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots have left their arrogant aloofness and seen the good in you at last. All the birds and creatures of the world are unutterably themselves. Everything is waiting for you.
reality might stories
The truth about our own modest contribution might immobilize us: much easier then, to tell ourselves a story about how much we make our own reality.
numbness absent edges
Absent the edge, we drown in numbness.
giving-up insecurity definitions
Shedding the carapace we have been building so assiduously on the surface, we must by definition give up exactly what we thought was necessary to protect us from further harm.
art listening-ear silence
The art form has to do with the mystery and the hidden invitation that's in the room. And that's when the magic happens, that's when the deep silence emerges to the surprise of all the attentively listening ears. In a way, you're following that silence. You go where the silence is deepest.
path doe mature
Heartbreak is how we mature... There is almost no path a human being can follow that does not lead to heartbreak.
numbness feelings tides
But what would that be like feeling the tide rise out of the numbness inside