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November 25, 2006

asking

by gl. at 8:44 pm

david whyte has a poem i very much like called "everything is waiting for you." but the thanksgiving trip gave me a chance to read the entire eponymous book (thanks, sandy!), and this excerpt from "september 2001" illuminated a part of my heart i feel is oft underappreciated:

You know, I must remember,
until my last breath goes out
to ask. To try, every time, one last time

to confirm the native
human intuition that heaven
is never far away at all,

that it's just a door or a step
or a whole short life to get there.
I must remember

to stop people in the street
as if the most closed,
grey, concrete, commuting life

could be just a skim
on the pool
of communal revelation

and as if, in my continued hurry
I just haven't
given anyone or anything

anywhere, any time
to let me know
what's really about to happen.

...

I must remember

to knock on other doors,
to call out people's names,
to enquire as if my life

depended on knowing
that something
always lies so close

and to remember that it takes
only one requited request
for the extraordinary

to make a hundred ordinary
encounters
up to that moment

more than extraordinary,
rare, numinous,
a harvest

worth having,
no matter how difficult
to sow and reap.

And that the angel always
has to elbow her way
towards us

through a lot of unknowing

posted by gl. | November 25, 2006 8:44 PM | categories: writing