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Self-Protrait
By peace | June 24, 2008
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM), House of Prayer and Formation,no.49, Holland Road.
SELF-PORTRAIT
By David Whyte
It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eye,
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living,
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.
I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.
Self-Protrait is a poem David Whyte(1955) wrote after looking in the mirror one morning — ‘something’ was calling him to stand up, wake up, and be honest about what his life was needing him to be and do. The whole theme of Whyte’s poem is authenticity. David whyte was born and raised in the north of England, studied marine zoology in Wales, and trained as a naturalist in the Galapagos Islands. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two children, and works full-time as a poet, reading and lecturing throughout the world. He is one of the few poets to bring his insights to bear on organizational life, working with corporations at home and abroad. He has published four volumes of poetry, and has also written two best-selling prose books.
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