Writing From The Inside Out 2021 Week 1 Prompt
Based on David Whyte’s Just Beyond Yourslef
Read the poem
Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you
Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…
Use the selection of prompts below the poem
Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…
Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes
Just Beyond Yourself
Just beyond
yourself.
It’s where
you need
to be.
Half a step
into
self-forgetting
and the rest
restored
by what
you’ll meet.
There is a road
always beckoning.
When you see
the two sides
of it
closing together
at that far horizon
and deep in
the foundation
of your own
heart
at exactly
the same
time,
that’s how
you know
it’s the road
you have
to follow.
That’s how
you know
it’s where
you
have
to go.
That’s how
you know
you have
to go.
That’s
how you know.
Just beyond
yourself,
it’s
where you
need to be.
—David Whyte
https://davidwhyte.com
Please join Writing From The Inside Out by attending the read-around sessions on Friday afternoons. It’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional. If you have not registered, click the button below; and if you have registered, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:
Note: Next Read Around is January 8, 2021
at 4:00 PM PST
My Thoughts
The Covid crisis of 2020 forced us to retreat into our homes, to limit our range, and stick close to ourselves. Although we can now see light at the end of the tunnel with the advent of vaccines, we are still far from stepping out of the woods. It may well take the better part of 2021 for us to begin the transition out of the Covid era. Even though we are hopeful, eager to get out in the world again, our actions can still put ourselves and others at risk. How do we begin to turn our attention back to the world while also staying close to ourselves?
David Whyte’s poem, Just Beyond Yourself, offers a glimpse into how we might navigate our way forward by finding a horizon outside of us that is reflected inside of us. To me, this means that we remain vigilant about the impact we have on the world even as we reach for our goals. It means that we do our best to integrate our outer and inner worlds as we proceed. It is well worth pondering the question of how we know what to do or which way to go, or when to begin, especially since we are in such a precarious position in our lives and in the world given the pandemic. Of course, you can create conscious criteria and use the strategic mind to choose. But how might your intuition guide you?
Prompts:
Write a welcome letter to 2021. What would you like to invite into your life? What changes in yourself or your life would you like to initiate?
Write a poem about where you need to be. You can use the opening line: “It’s where I (or you; or he/she) needs to be.”
What lies just beyond yourself ( just beyond the outer edge of the familiar in your life)? What do you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste that is just beyond yourself?
Write a poem that takes a half-step into self-forgetting and what you meet when you do so.
What do you need to forget about yourself in order to embrace what you meet on your next step in life?
Describe a road that beckons to you? What is its allure?
Whyte describes a way of knowing which road to follow by the horizon outside reflected in the horizon inside. What outer horizon is reflected inside of you?
How do you know which road you have to follow? How do you know when and where you have to go? Write a poem that uses the refrain: That’s how I know.
Write an ode to intuition or describe how your intuition guides you in making choices in life?
As usual, use whatever ispires you from the poem or eslewhere in life to compose.