Edited by Gloria Lee
The subject tonight is Love
And for tomorrow night as well,
As a matter of fact
I know of no better topic
For us to discuss
Until we all
Die!
Hafiz (translated by Daniel Ladinsky)
via Harsh K. Luthar on FB
Paris
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than
sun, more last than star…”
the madman running
to see the moon
in the window,
the hawk
I saw tracing the cliff edge
above the river.
I will be the man
I have pursued all along
and finally caught.
I will be
all my intuitions
and all my desires
and then I will walk
slowly down the steps
as if dressed in white
and wade into
the water for
a second baptism.
I will be like
someone who cannot
hide their love
but
my joy will become ordinary
and everyday
and like a lover
I will find out
exactly what it is like
to be the happiest,
the only one
in creation
to really
understand how much,
I’m just
a hair’s breadth
from dying.
Excerpted From MORTALITY MY MISTRESS.
in RIVER FLOW: New and Selected Poems
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
Photo ©2012 David Whyte: St Raven’s Edge and Ullswater Cumbria.
told the AP in 2008 when asked to reflect on his legacy. “There’s not
dozens of people now doing what I try to do, not hundreds, but literally
thousands. … The idea of using music to try to get the world together is now
all over the place.”
philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in
any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very
improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such
compulsion as this. I would be very glad to tell you my life if you want to
hear of it….I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud
that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or color
of their skin, or situation in life. I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have
sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing
for anybody. That is the only answer I can give along that line.