My humble bow
- Jennie Sze
- Jan 14, 2020
- 1 min read
A poem on surrendering our ambition to the flow of life. I heard David Whyte's voice while writing this poem, which is why some prose sound similar to how he recites his poetry.
Your great mistake, your great mistake
Is to assume that sweet grapes will continue to fall into your grasp
One after another
And to feel entitled to their arrival on your clock
With just the right amount of pause in between each grasp
When the wait is longer than you like
Your mind goes a million miles
Every second feels like minutes
Every minute feels like hours
Days turn into years
And weeks of anticipation feels like eternity
You use excuses like complacency to explain why you are in such a hurry
You blame yourself for your incompetence
To know exactly what lever to pull,
How hard you should pull,
For the next grape to fall from the sky
No my child
Give up your ambition
Listen to your intuition
Wipe your palate clean of your lusting saliva
And turn toward the spirit of the wind
Notice, patiently notice,
The subtle shifting of the invisible force
For it is growing in momentum
Bit by bit, day by day,
To bring the arrival of your next grape
Perhaps what it brings will no longer be a grape
But it's arrival will be apparently, unmistakably clear to you
It's arrival WILL be apparently, unmistakably clear to you
Now, take gentle pause to appreciate this gift
Don't swallow it as quickly as you did in the past
Savor the flavor, take in the smells
This is the sweetness of life
This is the joy of life

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