THE OPENING OF EYES
That day I saw beneath dark clouds,
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before,
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.
It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing,
speaking out loud in the clear air.
It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.
- from DAVID WHYTE: ESSENTIALS
ABOUT DAVID
David Whyte is an internationally renowned poet and author, and a scintillating and moving speaker. Behind these talents lies a very physical attempt to give voice to the wellsprings of human identity, human striving and, most difficult of all, the possibilities for human happiness.
His talks, to audiences of all persuasions, on everything from literature to leadership, heartbreak to healing; mindfulness to mythology, weave poetry, story and commentary into a moving, almost physical experience of the themes that run through every human life: joy and loss, vulnerability and vitality, courage and despair, beauty and necessary heartbreak. He draws from hundreds of memorized poems, his own and those of other beloved poets such as Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Keats, Pablo Neruda, Fleur Adcock and the sonnets of Shakespeare.
He is the author of ten books of poetry, three books of prose on the transformative nature of work; a widely-acclaimed, best-selling book of essays, and an extensive audio collection.
Learn More
NEWSLETTER
Sign up to receive notice of events, new releases and more …
JANUARY ONLINE SERIES
START CLOSE IN:
RESOLUTIONS FOR A NEW YEAR'S JOURNEY
WINTER OFFERINGS: LETTER FROM THE HOUSE
Living Without Enemies:
Refusing to Name as the Essence of Kindness
Outside the kitchen window veils of rain and wind are bringing in the autumn weather from far across the Pacific. On the animated satellite map glowing from my laptop, the earth looks gorgeous, hues of blue and green and corrugated brown appearing and disappearing under spiraling patterns of rain and cloud. Those same great spirals of rain and wind have made their way from the sub tropics of the Philippines, or the Northern islands of Japan, and turned to a white that signifies snow as they cross the Cascade mountains and sweep inland across the American continent. Beneath all this magnificence, it is sobering to think that humankind has decided it might allow itself to be bullied into tiny, dead-end conversations where we are made to turn into one another’s adversaries. Indeed, we have been bullied into bullying one another ...
FEATURED ON (click to listen)
