David White is not only a poet I admire, he is a friend.

David’s Tuscan “pilgrimage” is always a laugh and deeply meaningful.

Along with a few other friends, we accompany him on a sort of pilgrimage, having good conversations about whatever particular harvest one might be experiencing, while we roam the Tuscan countryside.

I cook for him and 40 other pilgrims every September in the Tuscan hills.

His poetry speaks dearly to me about my own experiences traveling and as some of you know, I use his poetry during my own programs. Today I thought about “The Journey.”

The line, “Sometimes everything has to be inscribed across the heavens, so you can find the one line written inside of you”, spoke to me today. Therefore, I wanted to share it with you.

~

The Journey

Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.

You are not leaving
even as the light fades quickly now
you are arriving.

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Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

Photo: Peggy Markel