Review written for ClubReading.com by Mary

David Whyte is an incredible poet who has learned how to meld poetry with corporate America. He has been able to take the gift of lyrics and teach administrators how to bring their soul(and that of their staff) to work.

This remarkable work is used by various corporate entities to develop the spirit in the work world. He has consulted with many major corporations in America to facilitate growth of personhood in corporate America.

As Peter Block describes it, The unique contribution of this work is the way it eases us into the dark and unmanageable side of the workplace. David Whyte makes the dive into the waters of the soul attractive and delectable. What a fine seduction.

On the afternoon of the second day, exhilarated by the clear, thin air and the ever-nearing white peaks rising around me, I turned sharply from an eroded cliff path high above an immense black gorge and found myself on a grassy shelf where the path turned from the rock wall and attempted to cross the drop.

I stopped right by the very entrance…hesitated, then immediately retreated to a safely anchored sunlit rock to sit it out.

After an hour the bridge remained in its intractable state and I was equally intractable in refusing to cross it.

After an hour had passed, I had finally faced up to defeat, made an attempt to swallow my pride, and determined that there was nothing for it but to shoulder my pack and start back down the path. As I reached for my pack,…I saw..an old bent woman, carrying an enormously wide-mouthed dung basket on her back.

Before I could look up, she went straight across that shivering chaos of wood and broken steel in one movement…

Incredulous,…I picked up my pack and went straight after her, crossing the broken bridge in seven or eight quick but frightening strides. Years later I wrote:

One day the hero
sits down,
afraid to take
another step,
and the old interior angel
limps slowly in
with her no-nonsense
compassion
and her old secret
and goes ahead.
“Namaste”
you say
and follow.

It seems to me that every man or woman comes to such a bridge at one time or another in their life, and we do not have to go to the Himalayas to find it. Its equivalent happens every day in every glass and steel structure across the country. Just the very moment we attempt to take a step in the right direction with a colleague, initiate a conversation, write a difficult memo, or take the first steps in a new direction, we can suddenly feel that the chasm is insurmountable and the bridge we had hoped to cross is down.

I have had the great privilege of hearing David Whyte in person. It is indescribable. He can touch all levels of the organization with his poetry, and can help all levels to understand what the soul means in an organization.

Each of his stories and poems nourishes the soul, and encourages you to stretch to “bring your soul to the workplace.”

I listen to his poetry…and inevitably there comes a moment where it hits me where I live…I have to stop and really do a gut check.

I have never personally encountered anyone that makes me think the way that David Whyte does…nor helps me to grow as a human.

I highly recommend David’s works…starting with this one.