The Journey

The Journey
David Whyte

Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

Painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.

You are not leaving
you are arriving.

~ David Whyte ~

(House of Belonging)

I have been reading/listening  to  several books by David Whyte and am very impressed with his poetry and philosophy .  I selected his poetry this week because I just saw on his web page that he is going to appear at Mercyhurst College in Erie on Sunday, March 27.  I would love to go hear him, so here's a heads up if anyone cares to join me.

As I approach 60, I become more conscious of the diminishing time I have to accomplish that nagging desire, which has always been a part of me, to do something that will make a difference in the world. Even more worrisome than the passing of time, is the sense that the  vision of what that something  may be is becoming more elusive and unclear. I find myself hoping  the “one line already written inside of me” will reveal itself  in the “great sky” of poetry.  I tell myself that may be wishful thinking, then I come across this poem, also by David Whyte, that offers reassurance.

The Lightest Touch 

Good poetry begins with
the lightest touch,
a breeze arriving from nowhere,
a whispered healing arrival,
a word in your ear,
a settling into things,
then like a hand in the dark
it arrests the whole body,
steeling you for revelation.

In the silence that follows
a great line
you can feel Lazarus
deep inside
even the laziest, most deathly afraid
part of you,
lift up his hands and walk toward the light.

~ David Whyte ~
from Everything is Waiting for You