Poetry, The Language of Transformation, with David Whyte
David Whyte is an Anglo-Irish poet who writes and teaches poetry, and its powerfully transformative nature. He has said that all of his poetry and philosophy are based on "the conversational nature of reality.” His beloved poem, Everything is Waiting for You, invite us into this conversation.
Everything is Waiting for You
David Whyte
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
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.
David Whyte talks about the radical role of poetry in society and oneself.
David Whyte at CreativeMornings Vancouver, Nov 6, 2020. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks
“Dignified or not, believable or not, ours is a God perpetually on bended knee, doing everything it takes to convince stubborn and petulant children that they are seen and loved. It is no more beneath God to speak to us using poetry, proverb, letters, and legend than it is for a mother to read storybooks to her daughter at bedtime. This is who God is. This is what God does.”