David Whyte, Poet — Spacious Ease, Irish Koans, Writing in Delirium, and Revelations from a Yak Manger (#781)

“Poetry is not some abstracted art. It’s how human beings speak when they’re trying to create language against which there are no defenses.”
— David Whyte

David Whyte (davidwhyte.com) is the author of twelve books of poetry and five books of prose, including his latest, Consolations II, which further explores what David calls “the conversational nature of reality.”

David holds a degree in marine zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural-history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon, and Himalayas. He is the recipient of two honorary degrees: from Neumann University in Pennsylvania and Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia.

David grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire and now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. 
He has also hosted a live online series, Three Sundays, every other month since 2020.

Please enjoy!

This episode is brought to you by GiveWell.org charity research and effective giving, Eight Sleep’s Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating, and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Listen onApple Podcasts

Listen onSpotify

Listen onOvercast

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Temperature is one of the main causes of poor sleep, and heat is my personal nemesis. I’ve suffered for decades, tossing and turning, throwing blankets off, pulling them back on, and repeating ad nauseam. But a few years ago, I started using the Pod Cover, and it has transformed my sleep. Eight Sleep has launched their newest generation of the Pod: Pod 4 Ultra. It cools, it heats, and now it elevates, automatically. With the best temperature performance to date, Pod 4 Ultra ensures you and your partner stay cool in the heat and cozy warm in the cold. Plus, it automatically tracks your sleep time, snoring, sleep stages, and HRV, all with high precision. For example, their heart rate tracking is at an incredible 99% accuracy.

Pod 4 Ultra also introduces an adjustable Base that fits between your mattress and your bed frame to add custom positions for the best sleeping experience. Plus, it automatically reduces your snoring when detected. Add it easily to any bed. 

And now, listeners of The Tim Ferriss Show can get $350 off of the Pod 4 Ultra for a limited time! Click here to claim this deal and unlock your full potential through optimal sleep.

This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. 

Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.

This episode is brought to you by GiveWell.org! For over ten years, GiveWell.org  has helped donors find the charities and projects that save and improve lives most per dollar. GiveWell spends over 30,000 hours each year researching charitable organizations and only recommends a few of the highest-impact, evidence-backed charities they’ve found. In total, more than 100,000 people have used GiveWell to donate as effectively as possible.

This year, support the charities that save and improve lives most, with GiveWell. Any of my listeners who become new GiveWell donors will have their first donation matched up to $100 when you go to GiveWell.org and select “PODCAST” and “Tim Ferriss” at checkout.

Want to hear another episode with a poet? Listen to my conversation with award-winning writer Mary Karr, in which we discuss curiosity and presence as a solution to fear, the role spirituality plays in maintaining her sobriety as a former atheist, coping with and expressing the aftermath of trauma, what she wished she’d known about therapy when she was younger, and much more.

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with David Whyte:

Website | Substack | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | TikTok | YouTube

• Consolations II by David Whyte | Amazon
• Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte | Amazon
• Other Books by David Whyte | Amazon
• Three Sundays | David Whyte
• Zen Master Henry Shukman — 20 Minutes of Calm, Plus the Strange and Powerful World of Koans | The Tim Ferriss Show #560
• Henry Shukman — Zen, Tools for Awakening, Ayahuasca vs. Meditation, Intro to Koans, and Using Wounds as the Doorway | The Tim Ferriss Show #531
• Show Me the Ink: A Reflection on Zen’s Inka Shomei | James Ford
• Sanbo Kyodan | Wikipedia
• About the Wordsworth Trust | Wordsworth Grasmere
• Old Bookbinders | Crafty Belle Group
• TLS | Times Literary Supplement
• Waking Up with Sam Harris App
• Unordinary Santa Fe 2024 | David Whyte
• David Whyte: The Vulnerable Choice of Breaking Our Hearts Open | Point of Relation Podcast
• Trekking Annapurna: Everything You Need to Know | Much Better Adventures
• The Eight Buddhist Hells | Linfamy
• The Sound of Music | Prime Video
• All You Need to Know About Marsyangdi River | Nature Lovers Treks & Tours
• Coleridge’s Distinction between Primary Imagination, Secondary Imagination, and Fancy | Romantic Era
• David Whyte: Everything Is an Invitation | Sounds True
• On Horizons, Barriers, and Meditation | David Whyte
• Poet David Whyte’s Questions That Have No Right to Go Away | Oprah’s Lifeclass
• What Is Dharma Combat? | Jason Quinn Zen
• What Is a Zen Koan? History and Interpretation of Koans | Being Zen
• Meditation Training Program | The Way
• Ideas for Modern Living: Regret | The Guardian
• An Excerpt from “Time” by David Whyte | Instagram
• Email Newsletter by Tim Ferriss | 5-Bullet Friday
• Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte | The On Being Project
• Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake | Project Gutenberg
• Towards the Heart’s Frontier: An Interview with David Whyte | Napkin Poetry Review
• All the Beautiful Questions That David Whyte Asked Me | Life Curator
• About the Galápagos Islands | Galápagos Travel Center
• King Lear by William Shakespeare | Amazon
• Tan-y-Garth Bach (Cottage) | Geograph Britain and Ireland
• The Carneddau | An Illustrated Guide to Snowdonia National Park
• The William Blake Archive
• Seeing Angels | Seven Miles of Steel Thistles
• We Become the Places We Love, with David Whyte | Meditative Story
• Excerpt from Tan-y-Garth (Elegy for Michael) by David Whyte | Facebook
• What Is Iambic Pentameter? An Explanation & Examples | No Sweat Shakespeare
• The Ancient Greek Chorus in Historical Context | National Theatre
• Zen | David Whyte
• Poet and Philosopher David Whyte on the Courage and the Necessity of Crises | The Marginalian
• Timothy Ferriss | The DO Lectures
• How to Pronounce Llwybr Cyhoeddus | HowToPronounce.com
• The History of the Welsh Language | Visit Wales
• Vipassana Meditation
• Zazen: Just Sitting, Going Nowhere | Lion’s Roar
• The Blue Cliff Record | Amazon
• Poetry from the Gathering (Opening Night) — David Whyte | The On Being Project
• The Bell and the Blackbird by David Whyte | All Poetry
• The Hills of Tuscany | David Whyte
• Times Alone: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado (Translated by Robert Bly) | Amazon

SHOW NOTES

• [00:06:25] Connecting with Henry Shukman.
• [00:10:32] Low times in the High Himalayas and a yak manger awakening.
• [00:15:17] The place from where David writes good poetry.
• [00:17:22] Invitational speech.
• [00:21:55] Catching up with the curve of one’s transformation.
• [00:27:58] A revolutionary moment reflecting on parameters and regret.
• [00:37:41] “Everything Is Waiting for You.”
• [00:40:54] The secret code to life and the agreed insanity of so-called adults.
• [00:46:47] Being found by the world in greater and greater ways.
• [00:48:52] Asking beautiful questions.
• [00:58:13] “Tan-y-Garth.”
• [01:02:09] Memorizing poetry.
• [01:08:28] “Zen.”
• [01:22:55] Courage.
• [01:24:15] How living in a trailer on the side of a Welsh mountain helped David develop as a writer.
• [01:31:14] Irish koans, French doors, and Tibetan bells.
• [01:38:30] Poetry as consolation.
• [01:42:03] The best place to hold a poem.
• [01:43:07] “Time.”
• [02:00:01] Writing and reading good poetry.
• [02:04:52] Parting thoughts.

MORE DAVID WHYTE QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“Poetry is not some abstracted art. It’s how human beings speak when they’re trying to create language against which there are no defenses. This has to be heard and it has to be heard in the spirit in which it is being conveyed, and the language has to be invitational to that particular person.”
— David Whyte

“Poetry is the secret code to staying alive, to staying present, to staying visionary.”
— David Whyte

“All of us spend so much time trying to find a path where we won’t have our heart broken. And really, the only way you can find a path where your heart won’t break is by not caring.”
— David Whyte

“You are really only courageous about what you’re heartfelt about.”
— David Whyte

“Time is not slipping through our fingers. It is we who are slipping through the fingers of time.”
— David Whyte

“Every conversation, as its foundation, has an invitation in it. When the invitation stops, the conversation really stops.”
— David Whyte

“Poetry’s been such a good friend to me. I’ve gone through seven years of grieving in seven months because poetry has allowed me to take each step along the way, in such a powerful, invitational way.”
— David Whyte

“The beautiful thing about a horizon is that it’s got something over it, that’s the definition, and that what’s over it is the unknown that’s inviting you. “
— David Whyte

“Sometimes your life breaks down and you hit present reality with such velocity that you break apart on impact. And this is a time honored way of transformation, but it’s very hard on us to go through it that way. There’s another way of doing it, which is to stay up with the edge of your own seasonal maturation, and that occurs below this invisible line inside you.”
— David Whyte

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Related

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it’s been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.