SWEET DARKNESS

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 River Flow

New and Selected Poems

© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press