David Whyte: Poet

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David Whyte: "People are hungry, and one good word is bread for a thousand."

I was introduced to DAVID WHYTE's poetry over a decade ago. Many of the poems touched me deeply and had an impact on my life. This lens is to share his life's work.

DAVID WHYTE is also a lecturer, and corporate consultant.

He's an adventurous poet . . .

He has a degree in marine zoology.
Has worked as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands.
Led natural history and anthropological expeditions in Chile, Bolivia,and Peru.
Traveled to India and Nepal.

DAVID WHYTE uses poetry in corporate settings to help others deal with change, and to encourage creativity in individual employees, and in organizations.

This Week's Featured Poem 

by David Whyte

BRENDAN
(excerpt)

Jupiter in the western sky
and my
son walking
with the whole arc
of the sea behind him.

Above his head
the fishing pole
bent as if to catch
the day-lit star,
hovering
on the broad horizon.

The mere shape of him
in silhouette
I love so much.

The whip of his wrist
and rascal slant
of his cap

like some
hieroglyph
of love I deciphered
long ago
and read to myself
again and again.

If I was asked
what my gift had been,
I should turn
to look at you.

You and your beloved
fishing pole,
casting for a star.

***
pic above: gelllsfl / photobucket
pic below: Madeline / photobucket
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The mere shape of him in silhouette I love so much

David Whyte's Poetry Bookshelf 

Fire in the Earth

Amazon Price: $12.82 (as of 11/22/2009) Buy Now

Songs for Coming Home: Poems

David Whyte's first book of poetry.

Amazon Price: $16.00 (as of 11/22/2009) Buy Now

Where Many Rivers Meet: Poems

Amazon Price: $12.75 (as of 11/22/2009) Buy Now

Everything Is Waiting for You

Amazon Price: $14.53 (as of 11/22/2009) Buy Now

House of Belonging

Amazon Price: $14.53 (as of 11/22/2009) Buy Now

New and Selected Poems 

River Flow: New & Selected Poems 1984-2007

Amazon Price: $26.40 (as of 11/22/2009)Buy Now

RIVER FLOW contains over one hundred poems selected from five previously published works, together with twenty-three new poems, including a tribute to an Ethiopian woman navigating her first escalator, a meditation of love and benediction for his young daughter, and a cycle of Irish poems that convey his deep love of the land and life-long appreciation for its wisdom. (amazon)

David Whyte grew up in Yorkshire, England

Poem: Self Portrait 

SquidWords.com

SELF PORTRAIT


It doesn't interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have been told, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.

~ David Whyte, from Fire In the Earth

Links for David Whyte 

David Whyte Calendar
A lot of information here, including his calendar of events, books, his poems.
David Whyte DVD
This is a page at Thinking Allowed where you can purchase a Whyte DVD called Preserving the Soul.
Engaging Life's Conversation
An interview with David Whyte; mp3 down-loadable.
Jak's Poetry Shop
David Whyte has his own section at Jak's Poetry Shop
Men's Issues: Poetry and Personal Passion by David Whyte
Comprehensive men's issues site: men spirit and soul; mythopoetyc, etc.
Here you'll find a written compilation of a couple interviews with David Whyte.
Interview with David Whyte
D.W: I see myself as being an English poet, an Irish poet, and a Northwestern poet. Perhaps even more interestingly, I´m not sure I would ever call myself an American poet, I think the first two disqualify me. But certainly there is a body of my work which would make me out as a Northwestern poet . . .
Audio: Work
Recordings for sale of talks, by D. Whyte, in organizational settings.
General Audio
More D.W. CDs for sale: several topics.

David Whyte on YouTube 

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He studied marine zoology in Wales

2009-2010 Scheduled Appearances in the U.S. / Canada 

Taken from the David Whyte Calendar (link above).
  • November 20-21
    Clear Mind Wild Heart, a Friday evening talk and Saturday workshop at The Institute of Noetic Sciences, Earthrise Retreat Center. Petaluma, California Please see their website for more details and registration information.
  • February 19-21
    What to Remember When Waking: Disciplines that Transform an Everyday Life. Weekend workshop sponsored by The Sophia Institute. Charleston, South Carolina
  • March 19
    Workshop and evening poetry reading at Los Angeles Religious Education Congress. Anaheim, CA
  • April 17
    Insight Lecture Series and The Well of Light present David Whyte in Grass Valley, CA . Title tba. For more information, please contact Suzie Daggett on 530.265.9255 or visit Insight Directory.

2009-2010 Scheduled Appearances U.K. / Europe 

Taken from the David Whyte Calendar (link above).
  • December 7-8
    Second of three part Salon Series sponsored by The Beyond Partnership. Self Knowledge: The Inner Foundations of a Robust Outer Life, Lambourn, UK http://tiny.cc/Kn8L3
  • March 22-23
    Third of three part Salon Series sponsored by The Beyond Partnership. Self Knowledge: The Inner Foundations of a Robust Outer Life, Lambourn, UK http://tiny.cc/Kn8L3

On the Galapagos Islands he worked as a naturalist

Poem: The Lightest Touch 

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

David Whyte on YouTube 

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Poetry Cards and Boxed Sets 

Poetry Cards
Sets of cards with the poetry of David Whyte. Envelopes included; one poem per card.

Set 1 has 6 cards, $12.00
Set 2 has 6 cards, $12.00
Set 3 has 6 cards, $12.00
Boxed Sets
A Quartet: boxed set with four of his poetry books.
6 CDs: Clear Mind, Wild Heart; Finding Courage; Clarity Through Poetry. (cassettes available)
6 CDs: Footsteps, A Writing LIfe

Current home is in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Poem: Loaves and Fishes 

One of my favorites!

Loaves and Fishes

This is not the age of information.
This is not
the age of information.

Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen.

This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.

People are hungry,
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.

~ David Whyte ~ from The House of Belonging

Most Recent Release 

The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship

Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 11/22/2009)Buy Now

Drawing from his own experience and the lives of some of the world's great writers and poets, David Whyte brings compelling insights to our three most important commitments- to another, to our work, and to ourselves-to frame a complete picture of a satisfying life.

There are three crucial relationships, or marriages, in our lives: the marriage or partnership with a significant other, the commitment we have to our work, and the vows, spoken or unspoken, we make to an inner, constantly developing self. In The Three Marriages, the bestselling author, poet, and speaker, argues that it is not possible to sacrifice one relationship for the others without causing deep psychological damage. (amazon)

Crossing The Unknown Sea (excerpt) 

. . . D. W.'s thoughts about keeping integrity

Somehow, whatever CREATIVE POWERS we have in our work are intimately CONNECTED TO OUR ABILITY TO REMEMBER WHO WE ARE amidst the traumas and losses of existence. All of our great literary traditions emphasize again and again the CENTRAL IMPORTANCE of this dynamic: that there are tremendous forces at work upon us, trying to make us like everyone else, and therefore WE MUST REMEMBER SOMETHING INTENSELY PERSONAL ABOUT THE WAY WE WERE MADE for this world in order to keep our integrity.

Crossing the Unknown Sea

The Artist's Journey 1 

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The Artist's Journey 2 

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The Artist's Journey 3 

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The Artist's Journey 4 

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Poem: The Well of Grief 

THE WELL OF GRIEF

Those who will not slip beneath
the still surface on the well of grief

turning downward through its black water
to the place we cannot breathe

will never know the source from which we drink,
the secret water, cold and clear,

nor find in the darkness glimmering
the small round coins
thrown by those who wished for something else.

~ Davie Whyte, from Many Rivers Meet

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Poem: What to Remember When Waking 

SquidWords.com

What to Remember When Waking

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the writing desk?

~ David Whyte ~

Poem: Mameen 

Mameen

Be infinitessimal under that sky, a creature
even the sailing hawk misses, a wraith
among the rocks where the mist parts slowly.
Recall the way mere mortals are overwhelmed
by circumstance, how great reputations
dssolve with infirmity and how you,
in particular, live a hairsbreadth from losing
everyone you hold dear.

Then, look back down the path as if seeing
your past and then south over the hazy blue
coast as if present to a wide future.
Remember the way you are all possibilities
you can see and how you live best
as an appreciator of horizons,
whether you reach them or not.
Admit that once you have got up
from your chair and opened the door,
once you have walked out into the clean air
toward that edge and taken the path up high
beyond the ordinary, you have become
the privileged and the pilgrim,
the one who will tell the story
and the one, coming back
from the mountain,
who helped to make it.

~ David Whyte ~ from River Flow

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