The Uncarved Blog

For a New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

© John O’Donohue

(To Bless the Space Between Us)
A Book of Blessings

Also see: The Inner History of a Day by John O’Donohue
and What To Remember When Waking by David Whyte.

Listen to Krista Tippett interview John O’Donohue On Being:
The Inner Landscape of Beauty.

Later added: John O’Donohue’s 4 short lines say it all for poets and A Blessing of Solitude by John O’Donohue complements Derek Walcott’s Love after Love.

This entry was posted on May 16, 2011 at 11:51 am and is filed under Audios, Other poems, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.