This poem by David Whyte speaks to me, a person who loves the night. A few years ago, I listened over and over to his CD collection: Clear Mind, Wild Heart. At the time, those CDs spoke to me on a level beyond understanding and shaped my view of the world and myself in the world. Every time I listened to them, I heard something new.
This poem is one that comes to mind a lot when I wake up in the night and feel completely alone--especially when that aloneness is not loneliness but a time of clarity.
I remember David telling about how he wrote the poem, how he passed the middle point of the poem and wrote "You must learn one thing...." and he paused for a long while, wondering what he was going to write next. And then the words came, "The world was made to be free in."
I would like to hear David Whyte again, so thankfully I still have that audio book and will listen again.
“Sweet Darkness”
by David Whyte
Listen
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.
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