THE EDGE YOU CARRY WITH YOU (by David Whyte)

You know
so very well
the edge
of darkness
you have
always
carried with you.

You know
so very well,
your childhood legacy:

that particular,
inherited
sense of hurt,
given to you
so freely
by the world
you entered.

And you know
too well
by now

the body’s
hesitation
at the invitation
to undo
everything
others seemed
to want to
make you learn.

But your edge
of darkness
has always
made
its own definition
secretly
as an edge of light

and the door
you closed
might,
by its very nature
be
one just waiting
to be leant against
and opened.

And happiness
might just
be a single step away,
on the other side
of that next
unhelpful
and undeserving
thought.

Your way home,
understood now,
not as an achievement,
but as a giving up,
a blessed undoing,
an arrival
in the body
and a full rest
in the give
and take
of the breath.

This living
breathing body
always waiting
to greet you
at the door,
always prepared
to give you
the rest you need,
always,
no matter
the long
years away,
still
wanting you,
to come home.

…

From ‘The Edge You Carry With You’
in ‘Still Possible’ David Whyte
Many Rivers Press Dec 1st 2021