Self Portrait

It doesn't interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.

Self Portrait -- David Whyte
from Fire in the Earth
©1992 Many Rivers Press

Do you mean it?

It`s not where you go when you die
It`s how you live when you`re alive
Who you touch and how you feel it?
It`s not about the time that you have
It`s how you cry and how you laugh
Who you love and how you mean it
And do you mean it?