David Whyte
David Whyte
David Whytewas an English professional footballer who played as a striker...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
world way precision
I returned to poetry as a more precise way to describe the world, more precise than science.
divorce people way
You'll always love the person, if you're sensible. But you get a lot of people, especially in divorces and separations, doing a lot of damage to themselves, because they can't figure out that they actually still love this person, but not in their original way.
way courageous made
Whether we stay or whether we go - to be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made.
mind care way
What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence.
life sailing way
Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is pleasant, but you are not going to explore many unknown realms that way.
voice way steps
We withdraw not to disappear, but to find another ground from which to see; a solid ground from which to step, and from which to speak again, in a different way, a clear, rested, embodied voice we begin to remember again as our own.
german
When I'm working with German audiences, I will call on my Rilke and Goethe in the original.
escape life millions people quiet
There are millions of people living Thoreau's life of quiet desperation, and they do not have the language to escape from that desperation.
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.
fear
It is not the thing you fear that you must deal with: it is the mother of the thing you fear.
It is difficult to be creative and enthusiastic about anything for which we do not feel affection.
carry fault full
Honesty allows us to live with not knowing. We do not know the full story; we do not know where we are in the story. We do not know who, ultimately, is at fault or who will carry the blame in the end.
attempting change eliminate trying
Stop trying to change reality by attempting to eliminate complexity.
brief evocative lost possibilities
Regret is a short, evocative and achingly beautiful word: an elegy to lost possibilities even in its brief annunciation.