Feb 24 “start with your own question” — David Whyte

Friday,  February  24
“To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice”

For a few weeks David Whyte has been on my mind, wanting my attention.  I am pretty sure I bought one of his books of poems and scrambled around my office looking enough times that to doubt that any of his books ever made a home here after all.   Nudged by such little intuitions, I web wandered and stopped with the first DW poem that was new to me.

I hope it blesses your Friday.  Here in Detroit the day promises clouds and hints at rain.  Around here we’ve suffered from a drought of blizzards,  lots of sun, trees budding too soon, no swirling winds or sculpted drifts.  Well . . .  maybe my move from “I” to “we” is too facile;  lots of people with whom I share the Detroit River passage in the heart of the Great Lakes would just as soon take a pass on blizzards.  So, let me edit:   “ . . .  around here I’ve suffered from a drought of blizzards.”

This new David Whyte poem does me good as the work week ends.  I hope it helps you too.

Have a blest weekend.

 

john sj

 

Today’s Post:  “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.

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.

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.

from  River Flow: New & Selected Poems
Many Rivers Press

David Whyte b. 1955

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