Wednesday, June 6, 2012

What To Remember When Waking by David Whyte



What to Remember When Waking
By David Whyte

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

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I've been away a while, mired in life:  drawing, painting, scribbling, reading ('Les Miserables' by Victor Hugo, all 1463 pages), crying (that awesome full moon), watching 6 seasons of "Northern Exposure" and the last season of "True Blood".  And watering my plants/flowers/tomatoes.  That about sums up my last month.  It's almost too hot and humid for life, but we walk around the block early every morning, dodging stinging horseflies the size of small birds.  It's a trip. 

I love you all.  Keep on trucking and stay cool.

xoxo,
Marion


"In summer, the song sings itself." ~William Carlos Williams


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"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability." ~Sam Keen




9 comments:

Kelly said...

Love this poem!!

I've missed you, Marion, and am glad to see you here again. We just got back from vacation and I could tell the minute I stepped off the plane that I was back in the world of humidity!!

Wine and Words said...

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.

I LOVE THAT. So much hope that tomorrow is no longer today, and with it comes endless possibility.

I hate the heat Marion. Makes me irritable...and believe me I need no help in that department, heh heh.

Love you bunches!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, I was born in Anchorage. I LOVE "Northern Exposure" but it doesn't come on anymore. :(

Debrah Riddleton said...

My dear Marion:
With all my heart to you.
Thanks for keep us in touch.
Warm greetings:
Debrah

Jonas said...

Nothing I love more than a new poem recommended by a friend. Thank you!

Joy Palakkal said...

Nice Poem!!!
Wishing You a Great Time Ahead..

quid said...

Oh how I love David Whyte! And especially this poem.

Humidity on the rise here, too, deluges of rain every day in June except one. Typical Florida June.

I have toyed with a reread of Les Miz.. prior to the film's release in December. You are more ambitious than I...sticking to free Amazon fiction previews and thrillers. Love Northern Exposure.. what a great watch to see the whole anthology.

Love you.

quid

erin said...

"To remember the other world in this world is to live in your true inheritance."

i wonder on the deep significance of this, marion, and i try to remember.

today walking through the forest - deer flies - the size of DEER FLIES! my god, small birds? move sister! i'm in shorts and a sweater right now, a thunderstorm taking over our town. perfect summer weather. how will i survive indiana??? (you must laugh at this all the way down where you are.)

stay cool and keep finding all those reasons to both cry and rejoice. much love to you)))

xo
erin

Phoenix said...

So glad to see you back - I was a bit worried, but I'm happy to see you've been doing wonderful things (like catching up on True Blood!) in your life.

I love David Whyte, I really do. He just... nails it, so nicely.