My Poetry by David Whyte

My Poetry

My poetry is all

reversed arrivals,

departures that are not,

secret losses

become public gains

and love welling 

from the wound

of a misconstrued defeat.

In my lines surprises

are not surprises

except

the surprise of forgetting

how close we are

to a total disappearance.

That's why I have to say it

and repeat it.

That's why I need to 

write it down,

that's why I have 

to look in the mirror

and sometime after

shout it

from the rooftops

of a blank page.

That's why I have

to surprise myself

and disturb everyone else,

even tell strangers

and people not yet

born or imagined,

that's why

without poetry

it's so easy to lie

day after day

about unbelievable

and unspoken truths,

that's

why it's

so easy to 

tell and retell

without knowing

without shame

the same old broken stories

again

and again

and again.

EVERYTHING IS WAITING FOR YOU

Poems by David Whyte