Poetry is a street fighter. It has sharp elbows. It can look after itself. Poetry can't be used for manipulation; it's why you never see good poetry in advertising.
David WhyteRead
It might be liberating to think of human life as informed by losses and disappearances as much as by gifted appearances, allowing a more present participation and witness to the difficulty of living.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is shaped by both losses and gains, encouraging a more engaged and mindful presence in our experiences.
David Whyte's quote suggests that recognizing the inevitability of loss and disappearance in life can bring a sense of liberation. By acknowledging these difficult aspects alongside our gifts and appearances, we can cultivate a deeper awareness and appreciation for the complexities of living, ultimately allowing us to engage more fully in our experiences and relationships.
Themes
LossLifeLivingExperienceAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on resilience, one might cite this quote to illustrate the balance of joy and sorrow in life.
More from David Whyte
All quotes →Poetry is often the art of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. It is a learned skill to force yourself to articulate your life, your present world or your possibilities for the future.
David WhyteRead
By definition, poetry works with qualities and dynamics that mainstream society is reluctant to face head-on. It's an interesting phenomenon that by necessity, poetry is just below the radar.
David WhyteRead
The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears
David WhyteRead
The severest test of work today, is not of our strategies, but of our imaginations and identities.
David WhyteRead
We learn, grow and become compassionate and generous as much through exile as homecoming, as much through loss as gain, as much through giving things away as in receiving what we believe to be our due.
David WhyteRead
Similar quotes
A lot of the stuff about white-supremacist groups was very family-friendly: 'We just love our people.' One the surface, you go, 'Gee, what's wrong with loving your people?' But when you love your people to the exclusion of everything else that's remotely different, that's when you get into trouble.
J. K. SimmonsRead
I am this bundle of what has been, and what has been accomplished.
Carl JungRead
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.
Edmund MorganRead
Losing too is still ours; and even forgetting still has a shape in the kingdom of transformation. When something's let go of, it circles; and though we are rarely the center of the circle, it draws around us its unbroken, marvelous curve.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
Every day without fail one should consider himself as dead. There is a saying of the elders that goes, 'Step from under the eaves and you're a dead man. Leave the gate and the enemy is waiting.' This is not a matter of being careful. It is to consider oneself as dead beforehand.
Yamamoto TsunetomoRead
Evil is tolerable if purged of coarseness.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead