BLESSING FOR UNREQUITED LOVE
A blessing on the eyes that do not see me as I wish.
A blessing to the ears that can never hear the far inward
footfall of my own shy heart. Blessings to the life
in you that will live without me, to the open door
that now and forever takes you away from me,
blessings to the path that you follow alone and blessings
to the path that awaits you, joining with another.
A blessing for the way you will not know me
in the years to come, and with it, a blind outstretched
blessing of my hands on anything or anyone
that cannot ever come to know me fully as I am,
and therefore, a blessing even, for the way I will
never fully know myself, above all, the deepest, kindest
wishes of my own hidden and untrammeled heart
for what you had to hide from me in you.
Let me be generous enough and large enough
and brave enough to say goodbye to you
without understanding, to let you go
into your own understanding, may you always
be in the sweet central, hidden shadow
of my memory without needing to know who you were
when you first came, who you were when you stayed
and who you will become in your freedom
now that you have passed through my life and gone.
…
‘BLESSING FOR UNREQUITED LOVE’
The Bell and the Blackbird
Poetry by David Whyte
APRIL 2018 © David Whyte and Many Rivers Press