Image by Dias/Unsplash, Public Domain Dedication (CC0).
Just Beyond Yourself
Just beyond
yourself.
It’s where
you need
to be.
Half a step
into
self-forgetting
and the rest
restored
by what
you’ll meet.
There is a road
always beckoning.
When you see
the two sides
of it
closing together
at that far horizon
and deep in
the foundations
of your own
heart
at exactly
the same
time,
that’s how
you know
it’s the road
you
have
to follow.
That’s how
you know
it’s where
you
have
to go.
That’s how
you know
you have
to go.
That’s
how you know.
Just beyond
yourself,
it’s
where you
need to be.
“Just Beyond Yourself” from The Bell and the Blackbird by David Whyte. Copyright © 2018 by David Whyte. Published by Many Rivers Press. Used with permission of the poet.
This poem was originally read in the On Being episode “Poetry From the On Being Gathering (Opening Night).” Listen to David Whyte’s On Being interview, “The Conversational Nature of Reality.”
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