David Whyte: Essentials

It is not a coincidence that this book will slide easily into your jacket pocket; you ll want to keep it close for unexpected moments, those gifts of small, beckoning spaciousness amidst all our obligations and necessities.

In addition to works written over a span of many years, plus one new poem and one new essay, the book contains David s personal reflections for many of the pieces, providing deeper context to its meaning.

In some ways an artistic representation of a close circle of companionship to the work and to the man : edited by his wife, and designed and typeset by close friends Edward Wates and John Nielson, the book forms an elegant testament to David Whyte's most closely-held understanding - that human life cannot be apportioned out as one thing or another; rather, it is best lived as a living conversation, a way between and beyond, made beautiful by darkness as well as light, at its essence both deeply solitary and profoundly communal.

Poet David Whyte grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father s Yorkshire. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The author of ten books of poetry and four books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology, honorary degrees from Neumann College and Royal Roads University, and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon and Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.

His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit, the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry and the world of vocation, work and organizational leadership.