Poetry is the art of overhearing ourselves say things from which it is impossible to retreat. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Poetry for me has been a long pilgrimage, a journey and a growing relationship with the unknown. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
I returned to poetry as a more precise way to describe the world, more precise than science. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
A good poem looks life straight in the face, unflinching, sincere, equal to revelation through loss or gain. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
There's a fierce practicality and empiricism which the whole imaginative, lyrical aspect of poetry comes from. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
The great poems are not about experience, but are the experience itself, felt in the body. — David Whyte Copy Share Image
A good poem has its own life. It's like bringing a child into the world. You, the poet, birthed the child, but… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Poetry is often the art of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. It is a learned skill to force… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
Poetry is a street fighter. It has sharp elbows. It can look after itself. Poetry can't be used for manipulation; it's why… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
It is the province of poetry to be more realistic and present than the artificial narratives of an outer discourse, and not… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
When I recite poems onstage, I put myself into the very personal struggle and it grants tremendous perspective. At the same time… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
In England especially, poetry's woven into the background fabric of society. And in Ireland, it's in the foreground. The place of the… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
I love the best of all the traditions. My discipline is the take-no-prisoners language of good poetry, but a language that actually… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
The workplace needs the poet's gift. But the poet also needs to be educated about the workplace. You're not just coming in… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“In some ways Coleridge committed a form of artistic suicide attempting to solve the complicated mystery he saw in the flocking starlings.… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no… — David Whyte Copy Share Image
“The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back… — David Whyte Copy Share
I returned to poetry as a more precise way to describe the world, more precise than science. — David Whyte Copy Share
What if the world is holding its breath - waiting for you to take the place that only you can fill? — David Whyte Copy Share
“It is not the thing you fear that you must deal with, it is the mother of the thing you fear. The very thing… — David Whyte Copy Share
Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to… — David Whyte Copy Share
The frail, vulnerable sounds of which we are capable seem to be essential to a later ability to roar like a lion without scaring… — David Whyte Copy Share
A good poem has its own life. It's like bringing a child into the world. You, the poet, birthed the child, but the child… — David Whyte Copy Share
“Work, like marriage, is a place you can lose yourself more easily perhaps than finding yourself. It is a place full of powerful undercurrents,… — David Whyte Copy Share
The moment you’ve uttered the exact dimensionality of your exile, you’re already turning towards home. — David Whyte Copy Share
“...wanting soul life without the dark, warming intelligence of personal doubt is like expecting an egg without the brooding heat of the mother hen.” — David Whyte Copy Share
It's my contention that there is no sincere path a human being can take without breaking his or her heart...so it can be a… — David Whyte Copy Share
“FINISTERRE The road in the end taking the path the sun had taken, into the western sea, and the moon rising behind you as… — David Whyte Copy Share
“We can never know in the beginning, in giving ourselves to a person, to a work, to a marriage or to a cause, exactly… — David Whyte Copy Share
“When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you. Time… — David Whyte Copy Share
