Many of us recognize multiplicity in ourselves. Sometimes we are this. But then sometimes that, in the day to day. I wrote yesterday about “every phase of life is developmental.” That means that there is nuance available. That there is learning available. Enrichment too.
David Whyte’s poetry inspires often. Recently, I got link to one of his called, My Courageous Life. As he so often does, David gives voice to the nuanced differentiation, and, to the nuanced integration.
Enjoy this. I did (thx Jeremy Nash of Poetry Tribe for sending). It refreshed my courage and a certain kind of joy.
My Courageous Life
David Whyte
My courageous life
has gone ahead
and is looking back
calling me on.
My courageous life
has seen everything
I have been
and everything
I have not
and has
forgiven me,
day after day.
My courageous life
still wants
my company:
wants me to
understand
my life as witness
and thus
bequeath me
the way ahead.
My courageous life
has the patience
to keep teaching me,
how to invent
my own
disappearance,
and how,
once gone,
to reappear again.
My courageous life
wants to stop
being ahead of me
so that it can lie
down and rest
deep inside my body
it has been
calling on.
My courageous life
wants to be
my foundation,
showing me
day after day
even against my will
how to undo myself,
how to surpass myself,
how to laugh as I go
in the face
of danger,
how to invite
the right kind
of perilous
love,
how to find
a way
to die
of generosity.
“My courageous life
wants to stop
being ahead of me
so that it can lie
down and rest
deep inside my body
it has been
calling on.”
This is a “new-to-me” offering, but admittedly I’ve lapsed in following Whyte’s work.
This stanza I know – how we are called to move beyond ourselves and its cost, especially if its a patterned reaction to life circumstances like “parentification.”
The last stanza…umph…that lands deeply, wonderfully so. I’ll be noting it.
Thanks always, my friend. Kindest regards…
“umph”
Thx Katharine.
Hello Tenneson! I’m smiling as I read David’s poem again. Of course I’m biased as we’re using it this week in the Poetry Tribe. I’m struck by the repetition of “my courageous life”. It sounds like a mantra that has the invitation deepen more and more as I read the poem. Thank you!
Me too Jeremy. I find I both need and want such a simple mantra. Helps me be in all the things that aren’t quite so simple.
So beautiful, and gentle in the way that it makes “courage” a dear friend. Very inspiring, thank you for sharing!
“Dear friending.” Within self. With others. With the moment. Yup, that all appeals, doesn’t it. I like the invitation — “to befriend.”