Poetry Friday
What to remember when waking
In that first
hardly noticed
moment
to 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 waiting desk?
~ David Whyte ~
Marie,
Thank you for sharing this delightful and thought provoking poem. There were many phrases that touched my spirit, but this phrase,
“you are not
an accident
amidst other accidents
you were invited”
really touched me. It is well past midnight here and no matter what measures I try, the insomnia is horrible. And with the insomnia comes the fears. What a beautiful reminder though that we are not accidents, instead we are invited guests from God to experience this wonderful thing called life.
Thanks again!
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Thank you Kim..so sorry to hear that you are experiencing insomnia..it is hard not to let those thoughts and fears creep into your mind in those early wakening hours. I hope it resolves itself really soon for you x
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Like Kim I was incredibly moved by those very same lines. Thank you so much for sharing such a beautiful poem.
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This poem struck me as a beautiful home-coming to self…I truly loved reading it.
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‘…you were invited from another and greater night than the one from which you have just emerged.’
Every day is miracle and each one of us a miracle in it.
Thanks for this reminder not to take myself or my life for granted.
ax
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“There is a small opening into the new day which closes the moment you begin your plans” – what a beautiful reminder of the preciousness of the early morning. Reminds me of the poet Rumi’s exhortation to awken with the dawn as the morning breeze has secrets to tell you.
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Stunning poem
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I found myself returning to certain lines of this poem again and again since first reading it. Such a wonderful poem to start the day with
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