People say the #climatecatastrophe and #culturewars are exhausting. So true. I'm contemplating the advice #DavidSteindlRast gave poet #DavidWhyte. He said, "The antidote to exhaustion isn't necessarily rest. The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness."

I was all ready to join my favorite living poet David Whyte for his “Three Sundays in May” series for “Poetry: Our Intimate Horizon”, today, online. Except it’s not today but begins next Sunday! Thought I’d share the event with all the poets and lovers of poetry, here. 😍

#Poetry #DavidWhyte #3SundaysInMay

https://davidwhyte.com/

Sweet Darkness
—A poem by David Whyte

“…You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.”

From “House of Belonging”

#Poetry #DavidWhyte

Sweet Darkness
—A poem by David Whyte

“…You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.”

From “House of Belonging”

#Poetry #DavidWhyte

Everything is Waiting for You
—a poem by David Whyte

“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.”

#Poetry #DavidWhyte

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 CLOSE IN
David Whyte : Essentials
Many Rivers Press © #DavidWhyte #poetry
/End

To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
really listen
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.

2/

START CLOSE IN
David Whyte : Essentials
Many Rivers Press © #DavidWhyte #poetry

…

START CLOSE IN

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 to begin
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.

1/

START CLOSE IN
David Whyte : Essentials
Many Rivers Press © #DavidWhyte #poetry

I think for the way my mind works, this 'silent internal conversation' is very familiar with #friends lost, (tho still alive).

#DavidWhyte also wrote:
"All friendships of any length are based on a continued, mutual #forgiveness. Without #tolerance and mercy all friendships die.

In the course of the years a close friendship will always reveal the shadow in the other as much as ourselves, to remain friends we must know the other and their difficulties ... and encourage the best in them.."

I want to attempt to put words to some thoughts I've had rattling around for a few years now regarding friendship, boundaries, grief, letting go, confusion, uncertainty and transcendence.

First, part of a writing by #DavidWhyte

"Friendship transcends disappearance: an enduring friendship goes on after death, the exchange only transmuted by absence, the relationship advancing and maturing in a silent internal conversational way even after one half of the bond has passed on."

A thread 🧵 1/

So here’s my literary thought of the day:
#Bono of #U2 can be well-considered as an Irish poet along side people like #DavidWhyte #JamesJoyce, #SeamusHeaney, and even #Yeats

“The ability to speak the truth is as much the ability to describe what it is like to stand in trepidation at the door, as it is to actually go through it and become that beautifully honest spiritual warrior, equal to all circumstances, we would like to become.”

- David Whyte
#poetry #DavidWhyte

This THIS THISSSSSSS

RT @tanyashadrick@twitter.com

‘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 clear, rested, embodied voice. Our life as a suddenly emphatic statement and one from which we do not wish to withdraw.’ #DavidWhyte

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/tanyashadrick/status/1377744843066241031

RT @tanyashadrick@twitter.com

‘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 clear, rested, embodied voice. Our life as a suddenly emphatic statement and one from which we do not wish to withdraw.’ #DavidWhyte

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/tanyashadrick/status/1377744843066241031

Over the various lockdowns, I had the privilege of doing online workshops with the #poet #DavidWhyte - he introduced me to the work of Antonio Machado, and then I discovered this song, based on one of Machado's poems.

'Pathmaker, there is no path. You make the path by walking.'

https://youtu.be/QHcypSLIp_A