David Whyte
David Whyte
David Whytewas an English professional footballer who played as a striker...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
coming groups lead mostly poems retreats topics
I have hundreds of poems memorized. Mostly by others, but also my own. I use the poems when I lead retreats for management groups on topics like creating teams, or coming up with a more entrepreneurial system, or creating more excitement.
great poetry
The thing about great poetry is we have no defenses against it.
cannot convey courageous grown initial lion mouse naked parts power sounds speech steps wisdom
Lion sounds that have not grown from the mouse may exude naked power... but cannot convey any wisdom or understanding... The initial steps on the path to courageous speech then are the first tentative steps into the parts of us that cannot speak.
It is difficult to be creative and enthusiastic about anything for which we do not feel affection.
deal destinies living people personal simply struggles time trying vision work
I don't have an all-embracing vision which people have to buy. I'm simply trying to work with the struggles we all deal with every day while we're trying to live out our personal destinies and make a living at the same time.
apart broken exploded field great human prior promoted rise territory
One of the great difficulties as you rise up through an organisation is that your prior competencies are exploded and broken apart by the territory you've been promoted into: the field of human identity.
boy faculty future missed neglected paying previous sincere tide
Sincere regret may be a faculty for paying attention to the future, for sensing a new tide where we missed a previous one, for experiencing timelessness with a grandchild where we neglected a boy of our own.
richness saving speak time
We speak continually of saving time, but time in its richness is most often lost to us when we are busy without relief.
behind bound courageous fear understanding
Without the compassionate understanding of the fear and trepidation that lie behind courageous speech, we are bound only to our arrogance.
admit beyond difficult fallible greatest lose powers sincere understand unspoken
To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible - that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins.
hope less moving toward work
We're moving toward the kind of work world which has less security. But we hope it has more creativity and possibility of real engagement.
adolescent almost attempting longer partly relate tough
There are many tough conversations, but one of the most difficult is between a parent and an adolescent daughter, partly because as a parent we are almost always attempting to relate to someone who is no longer there.
appreciate attentive average fully future high human life lived possibly regret stakes turns
To regret fully is to appreciate how high the stakes are in even the average human life; fully experienced, it turns our eyes, attentive and alert, to a future possibly lived better than our past.
german
When I'm working with German audiences, I will call on my Rilke and Goethe in the original.