David Whyte

A soul-based workplace asks things of me that I didn't even know I had. It's constantly telling me that I belong to something large in the world. ”

Being a good parent will necessarily break our hearts as we watch a child grow and eventually choose their own way, even through many of the same heartbreaks we have traversed. ”

All of our great traditions, religious, contemplative and artistic, say that you must a learn how to be alone - and have a relationship with silence. It is difficult, but it can start with just the tiniest quiet moment. ”

It is difficult to be creative and enthusiastic about anything for which we do not feel affection. ”

A sure sign of a soul-based workplace is excitement, enthusiasm, real passion; not manufactured passion, but real involvement. And there's very little fear. ”

To regret fully is to appreciate how high the stakes are in even the average human life; fully experienced, it turns our eyes, attentive and alert, to a future possibly lived better than our past. ”

The great poems are not about experience, but are the experience itself, felt in the body. ”

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. ”

Poetry carries the imagery which is large enough for the kind of life we want for ourselves. ”

Sometimes you have to make a complete disaster of your life in such an epic way that it will be absolutely clear to you what you've been doing. ”