Dave Whyte: Discussion Paper

After reading various poems that were written by David Whyte, I found that most of his poetry, if not all, reflects a “living spirituality and a deep connection to the natural world.” This course, ICS 392 – Challenging the Real World, is designed to apply our learning to our experiences in and expectations of the business world. Therefore, I believe that finding a poem that was written by David Whyte, would be the most closely related to this course. The poem that I found to be most useful to myself and most closely related to this course was written by David Whyte, entitled, “All the True Vows.” This poem is very spiritual and definitely connects us to the “real world.”

After carefully reading and interpreting the first four lines of the poem, I believe that Whyte is trying to explain that every “vow” we make is sacred within ourselves but if they bother us or create conflict, we should share them and not keep them locked up. All the “vows” we make and speak of out loud are the ones that we only wish we could obtain and since we might never actually conduct them, they are like burdens locked up in us. Lines five through eight further explains how we live the everyday life and want to have something better and are trying to make it better but it is more of what we want then what we have or can have. By this I mean that although someone who is teaching and is passionate about what they do still might want more money, yet, they continue to teach even though their job is not paying their wanted salary. This person is living one life and wishing for another even though they know that they already have what they want. Lines nine through thirteen state that we should make sure we express what we feel and mean and not try to do things or act in ways that are not truly “us.” We should always believe in our principles and morals that we grew up following and continue to abide by what we believe in, not what everyone else believes in. Lines fourteen through twenty simply states that if you are not satisfied with what you do and how you live your life, then you will overlook what is really at hand such as the job you possess and the friends you have made. Furthermore, you are wasting time in the present to get something in the future that you might not ever get, therefore, you need to enjoy every moment of your life in the present so you can enjoy anything in the future with that extra step. Lines twenty-one through thirty-eight represent a situation in which you can confer with yourself when no ones around and figure out what is real to you and what is not. You will find out what you want and do not want and what you might want but you know you might not get. The final lines, thirty-nine through forty-nine show how one person finally gets the courage to finally let out their true feelings. After all this wait and battle within themselves, people need to definitely keep certain things inside of themselves but also be able to share other things even though they might not think they are relevant to the situation. People should not keep inside them those things and promises they make to not speak out because you will feel guilty throughout the whole time you decide to not share your true feelings.

This poem connects to class material in many instances. First, this poem shares a common point with Reality Check #4 and the article by Hugh Prather. In that article, Prather wrote, “You are not what you do: you are how you do it.” This relates to this poem because this poem talks