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David Whyte

@davidjwhyte

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Poet and Philosopher

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I wrote poems for 100 strangers. Here’s what I learned. 👇
📊 The stats
1st poem: Lucas, 31 July 2026
100th poem: Marcello, 1 October 2026
Gender split: 78% F / 22% M*
Oldest: 81. Youngest: 15 months.
Most common themes: change, transition, urgency/worry.
Payment received: $0.00 (gifted one muffin, one brownie, a beer, many coffee offers and one froyo offer from YOMG 😂)

Here’s what I found…

1. Women are the courageous ones. Women stopped, shared and asked questions. Most men walked past with the occasional smartarse comment. Courage isn’t just running into burning buildings. Most of it lives in everyday vulnerability.

2. Poems crack us open. About one in three people cried or had a big emotional reaction. The incredible @davidjwhyte says poetry is “language against which we have no defences”. He’s 100% spot on.

3. Everyone has a story, but good questions help bring it to life. The three that worked every time:
• What season of life are you in?
• What big questions are you contemplating?
• What is calling you forward?

4. We struggle to receive a gift. People left and came back with money. Some insisted on paying. But no $$ were ever taken. Giving without condition feels foreign to a lot of us, and TBH that made me a little sad.

5. Mornings are meant for rushing. People rarely stopped. Everyone was getting somewhere. It made we wonder if we’ve optimised ourselves out of the magic of a morning?

6. Amazing things sit on the other side of fear. I sat on this project for close to a month. What if no one stops? What if what I write is shit? Thankfully some voice notes from @thepoempress and my mate @markmathewssurf wisdom that “you’ve got to want it more than you fear it”, got me over the line. It’s been tremendously fulfilling.

Which one surprised you most? 👇

*Based on how people presented. I didn’t ask specifics.
#typewriterpoetry #poemsforstrangers #goldcoast

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Face The Truth You've Been Avoiding - David Whyte (Poet & Author of Consolations)

Full episode available on YouTube (DavidPerellChannel)

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✨Your invitation! ✨
Listen to the @davidjwhyte snippet. The generosity of embodied voice opens a world of deeply beautiful possibility!

The pod is out!
Trailer and Episode 1 available wherever you get your podcasts! Download both now!

We will practice:
1. embodying YOUR voice through making sounds
2. Using those sounds to fully express the emotions we are feeling (no need for words yet!)
3. Finally using laguage that is embodied to put COMMUNE back into COMMUNICATION

Release dates are 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month. Don’t miss out on the journey of Your Sound Unbound!

#communeincommunication #somatics #embodiedvoice #yoursoundunboundpod

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“We’ll throw relationships, friendships, anything but face the grief.”

💭 What have you let go of to avoid feeling a loss?

This episode is available wherever you get your podcasts. Search “Know Thyself Podcast David Whyte” or comment “grief” for the full conversation.

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“May what is hidden in you become your gift to give.”

💭 What part of you are you ready to stop hiding?

This new episode is available wherever you get your podcasts. Search “Know Thyself Podcast David Whyte” or comment “mask” for the full conversation.

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Cúpla Focal | Alvy Carragher

A reading of Cúpla Focal by Alvy Carragher, recipient of the 2026 David Whyte Poet-in-Residence Award at Burren College of Art.

Alvy joined us for a four-week residency in September, spending time developing her work within the Burren and the creative community at BCA.

A Dublin-based poet, Alvy is the author of three poetry collections, most recently What Remains the Same (The Gallery Press, 2024).

The David Whyte Poet-in-Residence Award is made possible through the generous support of poet David Whyte.

#BurrenCollegeOfArt #AlvyCarragher #DavidWhyte #Poetry #PoetryIreland

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“There’s something very powerful about the way no opens up the unknown.”

💭 What are you ready to say no to?

This new episode is available wherever you get your podcasts. Search “Know Thyself Podcast David Whyte” or comment “path” for the full conversation.

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“Embodying language in a generous way can really bring the best out of us.”

💭 Whose voice brings out the best in you?

This new episode is available wherever you get your podcasts. Search “Know Thyself Podcast David Whyte” or comment “voice” for the full conversation.

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Have you ever been so busy getting your point across that you missed the person in front of you?

@davidjwhyte shares:
“A lot of conversations that we call conversations are not conversations at all. It’s just me waiting for a gap so that I can fire off this invisible pile of ammunition that’s at my side.”

David Whyte is a poet and the author of Crossing the Unknown Sea. He trained as a marine zoologist and spent two years as a naturalist guide in the Galápagos Islands, where he first learned to listen to a world that was speaking back.

Comment “listen” and we’ll send you the full episode.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:
· Why the part of you that doesn’t know what to say is the part that makes real invitations
· How attention changes who you are, told through a Galápagos hawk that refused to fly away
· Why falling silent can feel like dying, and what opens up when you let it happen
· The first step in deepening a hard conversation, and the cup of tea that turned one around with his daughter
· How a midnight talk with a stranger turned him back toward his calling
· What grief for his friend John O’Donohue taught him about carrying someone’s gifts forward
...and much more.

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Purpose gives you energy.

And I’ve found some of mine in the stillness and silence of being with myself.

In learning to listen deeply. To recognise the quiet signals of my intuition. And to follow them with courage, allowing myself to be led by the heart.

Something shifts when I feel connected to what I’m doing. When I believe in it. When my actions reflect what matters to me.

Energy follows.

An energy that comes from more than pushing through. Energy that comes from wholehearted participation in my own life.

That’s the beauty of pausing: creating pockets of time and attention to reflect, listen inward, and reconnect with what gives our lives meaning.

Sometimes, slowing down is how we find the energy to move forward.

#Exhaustion #Rest #Purpose #heartled #courage

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Join us and bring a poem you wrote or one that is getting you through these times this Thursday, October 22nd, 5-6pm at St. Catherines on Hwy 101 south of Manzanita.

I will sing 5 songs with your voices/poems filling the spaces in between. Cellist Bill Britton will be accompanying me this week.

The intent is that this will be a quiet and hopeful time to be together and remember that each of our little lights matters so much in whatever kind of darkness we may find ourselves in.

The annual Advent Concert will be Saturday, December 5th, at 4pm.

Go gently.

#community #lovewins #poetry #singersongwriter #celticspirituality

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Unwell, so scrolling. Last slide reveals current mood.

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