David Whyte
David Whyte
David Whytewas an English professional footballer who played as a striker...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
close lies necessary relationship truth understanding wanting
Honesty lies in understanding our close and necessary relationship with not wanting to hear the truth.
admit beyond difficult fallible greatest lose powers sincere understand unspoken
To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible - that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins.
understanding weakness faculty
Vulnerability is not a weakness but a faculty for understanding.
afraid deeply effect found fully honest honesty revealing truth understanding
Honesty is not found in revealing the truth, but in understanding how deeply afraid of it we are. To become honest is in effect to become fully and robustly incarnated into powerlessness.
behind bound courageous fear understanding
Without the compassionate understanding of the fear and trepidation that lie behind courageous speech, we are bound only to our arrogance.
fear
It is not the thing you fear that you must deal with: it is the mother of the thing you fear.
adolescent almost attempting longer partly relate tough
There are many tough conversations, but one of the most difficult is between a parent and an adolescent daughter, partly because as a parent we are almost always attempting to relate to someone who is no longer there.
carry fault full
Honesty allows us to live with not knowing. We do not know the full story; we do not know where we are in the story. We do not know who, ultimately, is at fault or who will carry the blame in the end.
attempting change eliminate trying
Stop trying to change reality by attempting to eliminate complexity.
brief evocative lost possibilities
Regret is a short, evocative and achingly beautiful word: an elegy to lost possibilities even in its brief annunciation.
include job necessary richer
Things have a way of being richer in the end, a product better made, for the circuitous route we take to include all the elements that are necessary for a job well done.
companions courage gives great poems poetry sets straight
Poetry gives us courage and sets us straight with the world. Poems are great companions and friends.
carries large life poetry
Poetry carries the imagery which is large enough for the kind of life we want for ourselves.
absolutely complete epic life
Sometimes you have to make a complete disaster of your life in such an epic way that it will be absolutely clear to you what you've been doing.