22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MARCH 21-27, 2024 www.montereycountyweekly.com memory is better now, he says, than it was in his 20s. “You have to be careful that things fall from your repertoire,” he says, since he doesn’t read but recites his poems from memory. “When I recite, I find a different kind of emphasis each time. It’s like whispering, but I’m being whispered to at the same time. It’s the voice of something other than yourself speaking back to you.” Whyte’s presence beyond small poetry readings and in printed books means he finds readers from all over. Tyler Scheid of Carmel saw Whyte’s name popping up online, and developed an interest in his writing about five years ago. “He just struck the chord, woke me up to a larger reality we live in,” Scheid says. He attended an online event with Whyte, and is thinking about in-person participation at a workshop in Ireland, due to Scheid’s Irish roots. Upcoming events include one for leaders and coaches focused on the “false choices we often make between our personal gifts and the sacrifices we make for others”; one focused on shame (“nothing to be shameful about”); and his event at Asilomar, titled “A Deeper Form of Rest.” What to expect? A celebration, lots of laughter, tears and poetry, Whyte says. “We all know how difficult it is to really rest,” he adds. In the event description, he wrote: “I will look at ways of working from a deeper, a priori, rested core that already exists inside us, but which can only be approached through various forms of undoing rather than doing.” Some might think about poetry magnifying feelings as a form of therapy, or a session focused on practical wisdom. Charlotte Whyte—Whyte’s daughter, who has been coming with him to Asilomar since she was a child—will sing Irish music along with brothers Owen and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, who perform everything from Latin Gregorian chant to Irish language pre-Christian spiritual music and traditional song. Whyte describes the weekend event, which is expected to draw 200300 people, as an opportunity to “practice the art of simplification and the art of resting at a deeper level.” The goal is to do some poetry healing. But it is also celebratory, an opportunity to soak up beauty of a place, of words, of our own minds. “We will create our own Easter,” Whyte adds, noting the event wraps up on Easter Sunday. (Even though Whyte is more soaked in philosophy than in religion, he would know because his first culture, the culture of his mother, was Irish Catholic.) “Poetry is not about something, poetry is something,” Whyte says. “You create this physical experience in the room—gravitation, eye contact with the audience. I’m following the silence in the room. Where the silence is deepest, I’m going.” A Deeper Form of Rest: A Weekend of Renewal with David Whyte takes place Friday-Sunday, March 29-31. Asilomar Conference Center, 800 Asilomar Ave., Pacific Grove. $695; $925/including meals; onsite lodging booked separately. (888) 635-5310, davidwhyte.com. Sweet Darkness By David Whyte When your eyes are tired the world is tired also. When your vision has gone, no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your home tonight. The night will give you a horizon further than you can see. You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you. Republished from David Whyte: Essentials © 2020 Many Rivers Press. Prevention, Education, Treatment & Recovery serving youth, adults and families in Monterey County Underage cannabis use might have permanent effects on the developing brain when use begins in adolescence, especially with regular or heavy use. Support youth prevention services www.SunStreetCenters.org Monitor the “stuff level” in your home: Every time a new item comes into your home, a similar item must leave! GCC encourages those following a more minimalist lifestyle to kindly donate “one out” items in support of our mission Goodwill Central Coast builds lives, families and communities by helping people with employment needs become successful, supported by innovative enterprises that preserve earth’s resources. EMBRACE THE RULE OF ‘ONE IN, ONE OUT’
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