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David Whyte (poet)

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David Whyte
Whyte in 2009
Whyte in 2009
Born (1955-11-02) 2 November 1955 (age 69)
Mirfield, Yorkshire
OccupationPoet
NationalityBritish, American

David Whyte (born 2 November 1955) is an English poet. He is quoted as saying that all of his poetry and philosophy is based on "the conversational nature of reality".[1] His book The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America (1994) topped the best-seller charts in the United States.

Life and work

Whyte's mother was from Waterford, Ireland, and his father was a Yorkshireman.[2][3] He attributes his poetic interest to both the songs and poetry [4] of his mother's Irish heritage and to the landscape of West Yorkshire. He grew up in West Yorkshire and has commented that he had "a Wordsworthian childhood", in the fields, woods and on the moors.[5][6] Whyte has a degree in Marine zoology from Bangor University.[2][7]

During his twenties Whyte worked as a naturalist and lived in the Galapagos Islands, where he experienced a near drowning on the southern shore of Hood Island.[6][8][9][10][11] He led anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes the Amazon and the Himalayas.[12]

Revelation must be
   terrible with no time left
to say goodbye.

Imagine that moment
   staring at the still waters
with only the brief tremor

of your body to say
   you are leaving everything
and everyone you know behind.

From "Revelation Must Be Terrible"[13]

Whyte moved to the United States in 1981 and began a career as a poet and speaker in 1986.[14][15] From 1987 he began taking his poetry and philosophy to larger audiences including consulting and lecturing on organisational leadership models in the US and UK exploring the role of creativity in business.[10][14][16][17] He has worked with companies such as Boeing, AT&T NASA, Toyota, The Royal Air Force and the Arthur Andersen accountancy group.[18][19]

Work and vocation and "Conversational Leadership" is the subject of several of Whyte's prose books, including Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as Pilgrimage of Identity, The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship[6] and The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of The Soul in Corporate America which topped the business best seller lists, selling 155,000 copies.[18][19][20][21][22]

Whyte has written seven volumes of poetry and four books of prose. Pilgrim is based on the human need to travel, "From here to there.'[23] The House of Belonging looks at the same human need for home.[24] He describes his collection Everything Is Waiting For You (2003) as arising from the grief at the loss of his mother.[25] Pilgrim was published in May 2012.[2] His latest book is 'Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.[26] An attempt to 'rehabilitate' many everyday words we often use only in pejorative or unimaginative ways.[27] He has also written for newspapers including The Huffington Post[28][29] and The Observer.[30] He leads group poetry and walking journeys regularly in Ireland, England and Italy.[6]

He has an honorary degree from Neumann College, Pennsylvania, and is Associate Fellow of both Templeton College, Oxford, and the Saïd Business School, Oxford.[2][7]

Whyte runs the Many Rivers organisation and Invitas: The Institute for conversational leadership, which he founded in 2014.[12][31][32] He has lived in Seattle and on Whidbey Island and currently lives in Langley, in the US Pacific North West and holds dual US-British citizenship.[3][21] He has one daughter, Charlotte, from his second marriage to Dr. Leslie Cotter, (now divorced as of November 2014), and a son, Brendan from his first marriage to Autumn Preble.[33] Whyte has practised Zen and was a regular rock climber.[6] He was a close friend of the Irish poet John O'Donohue.[34]

Works

Poetry collections

  • The Sea in You (Many Rivers Press 2015)
  • Pilgrim (Many Rivers Press 2012)
  • River Flow: New & Selected Poems Revised Edition (Many Rivers Press 2012)
  • River Flow: New & Selected Poems 1984–2007 (Many Rivers Press 2007)
  • Everything is Waiting for You (Many Rivers Press 2003)
  • The House of Belonging (Many Rivers Press 1996)
  • Fire in the Earth (Many Rivers Press 1992)
  • Where Many Rivers Meet (Many Rivers Press 1990)
  • Songs for Coming Home (Many Rivers Press 1984)

Prose

  • "Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words" ( Many Rivers Press 2015 )
  • The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self & Relationship (Riverhead 2009)
  • Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as A Pilgrimage of Identity (Riverhead 2001)
  • The Heart Aroused: Poetry & the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America (Doubleday/Currency 1994)

Audiobooks

  • Pilgrim
  • Sometimes
  • Return
  • What to remember when waking
  • Echoes in the well
  • Sweet darkness
  • Clear mind wild heart
  • Midlife and the great unknown
  • Thresholds
  • The poetry of self compassion
  • Life at the frontier
  • A change for the better
  • The teacher's vocation
  • Make a friend of the unknown
  • The opening of eyes
  • Faithful to all things
  • The power and place of poetry
  • Footsteps: A writing life
  • Solace: The Art of Asking the Beautiful Question"

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Whyte, David. "Life at the Frontier: The Conversational Naure of Reality". Ted Talk. Ted Talk. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d Profile at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
  3. ^ a b "Exposing business to the power of poetry" The Irish Times 24 May 2005
  4. ^ Whyte, David (2007). River Flow (1st ed.). Langley: Many Rivers.
  5. ^ David, Whyte. "Asilomar Talk 2012". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  6. ^ a b c d e The Denver Post "David Whyte's nonprosaic world" 26 May 2009
  7. ^ a b American Library of Congress profile and audio file
  8. ^ Whyte, David (2001). Crossing the Unknown Sea (1st ed.). Riverhead.
  9. ^ Stanford University profile
  10. ^ a b A Blessing in Disguise: 39 Life Lessons from Today's Greatest Teachers (2008) Andrea Joy Cohen and Thich Nhat Hanh, Penguin, p285 ISBN 9780425219669
  11. ^ "The Uncanny Dream That Saved Me from Disaster" O Magazine. March 2001
  12. ^ a b David Whyte official website, Many Rivers
  13. ^ "Revelation must be terrible" by david Whyte
  14. ^ a b Harvard Business Review May 2007
  15. ^ "Staff well-versed in the meaning of working life" , Daily Mail 18 April 1996
  16. ^ PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) profile
  17. ^ "O for a muse of office fire" The Observer 21 January 2001
  18. ^ a b The Independent "Business types everywhere would benefit by listening to a chap with a Ted Hughes accent and a David Lodge haircut declaiming poetry " 1 July 1995 .
  19. ^ a b Business Week "Companies Hit The Road Less Traveled" 4 June 1995
  20. ^ Many Rivers Interview
  21. ^ a b Penguin publishing profile
  22. ^ "A Poet Taps Into the Disillusionment of Managers" New York Times 20 June 2001
  23. ^ Whyte, David (2012). Pilgrim: Poems by David Whyte (1st ed.). Langley: Many Rivers Press.
  24. ^ Whyte, David (1997). The House of Belonging. Langley: Many Rivers.
  25. ^ Sounds True Interview April 2010 Sounds True interview transcript
  26. ^ Whyte, David (January 2015). Consolations: The Solace, nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words (1st ed.). Langley: Many Rivers Press.
  27. ^ davidwhyte.com. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  28. ^ "The Poetic Narrative Of Our Times" 3 December 2009 The Huffington Post
  29. ^ "The Questions that Have No Right to Go Away" 18 June 2012 The Huffington Post
  30. ^ "Ideas for modern living: regret" Observer, by David Whyte 25 July 2010
  31. ^ invitas.net. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  32. ^ Institute of Conversational Leadership
  33. ^ "Time to make your life work", The Irish Times 18 May 2004
  34. ^ BBC obituary of John O'Donohue

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