“Stand still. The trees ahead
and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here.
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger.
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers.
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it you may come back again.
saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you.
You art surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.”
~ David Whyte
And “here” is a powerful stranger indeed. Ha! Lovely poem. Thanks for posting. 🙂
I love this but it is actually not by David Whyte – although he cited it in a book. It is an old Native American elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner. CIted in “The Heart Aroused – Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America” by David Whyte, Currency Doubleday, New York, 1996.
Interestingly enough after a little research, I found another reference, that listed it by David Wagoner from Collected Poems 1956-1976 © Indiana University Press on the “Writer’s Almanac” by Garrison Keillor. Thanks for the information