daily fieldnotes

Start Close In 2

A Poem by David Whyte

***

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.

To find
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

***

2 comments

  1. Megsie

    02/21/2013 at 11:49 am

    Oh, I love this. “That step you don’t want to take.” But that is the step that matters most, isn’t it? It is just finding the courage to take it. Thank you for sharing this with me today, it is just what I needed to begin again. xo

     
    • Willow

      02/21/2013 at 12:08 pm

      It IS the step that matters most, that first one, isn’t it?
      We have my dear friend to thank for this poem today, she shared with me yesterday!

       

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