On David Whyte

The inspiration I drew from a night with the poet David Whyte.

I went to a Poetry Evening with David Whyte tonight.

He signed his latest book of poems titled Pilgrim. To the Pilgrim Soul in You. I am a pilgrim, I am traveling from where I was to where I am going, you can call me Pilgrim if you see me wandering, if you see me not remembering who I am, remind me, and say Pilgrim do you see out in front of you where you are going, do you remember that place you set out for long ago, is the one inside you who had the thought that there is a better place, still holding that thought, has it changed to yet a higher plane than from when you first set out. Say Pilgrim create your path, for there is no path but the one you are creating as you journey, there is a goal but it changes just as the bends and turns in the path you are walking down, though you may go round and round you will never return to where you were for that place, and that one you were, is no more, he and there is no more. Say Pilgrim, don't turn there but there, and then watch me stare off into the night, with eyes dreaming once more the dream that was once locked behind the door, of the forgetting, of the innocence lost, listening to the sounds of shadows that mocked with a hallow shell of what might have been. Say Pilgrim from what place have you journeyed here where all are pilgrims crossing in the night, calling each other Pilgrim with no reference for where or when they began moving from there to where they are going and the new ones they are becoming. Fearless they walk on leaving behind the one they once clung too with a warmth they have lost touch with and now new, in this fresh morning dew they awaken to a breathing they have not known since childhood and yet they remember this breath that entered and filled, and filled and entered, refreshed and vibrant like an early morning sky on a crisp spring morning when all is fresh bright spring green, glowing with the essences of life, a spark within has been re-lit and from this spark a new fire has risen, growing, glowing, birthing new life within the Pilgrims step, on with this journey to the end they cry, on with this journey to my pulse I shall move, on to the new destiny I write in these sands that I walk over, these sands that will tell the story of the Pilgrims journey to new lands undiscovered and unseen, to the Pilgrim who changed in the moment the Pilgrim thought there is a better place and I will journey to find it, as if there was a place, but now knowing it is the way the Pilgrim journeys that is the Journeys end not a place at all, not an ending but a new beginning, a whole new way of being. I am this Pilgrim and I am on this Journey, and it is this way that I am that is my journeys end. Thank you David Whyte, you are an inspiration, you are a Delight, an amazing blend of experience, love, humor, wit, and just pure joy, thank you for the insight you shared with us pilgrims who share this journey with you now.