Sweet Darkness

Written and read by David Whyte

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your home
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

“Sweet Darkness” from The House of Belonging by David Whyte. Copyright © Many Rivers Press, Langley, Washington. Used with permission of the poet.

This poem was originally read in the On Being episode “The Conversational Nature of Reality.”

 Sweet Darkness | The On Being Project - The On Being Project