David Whyte Essentials Paperback – December 6, 2019

I first heard David Whyte on Sam Harris’ Waking Up app, and was taken aback at how beautifully he read his own writing. His poetry is beautifully inciteful about the human experience. Book arrived undamaged in a timely fashion.

It's strange how we stereotype things, even writing or literature. Poetry is often supposed to be one of those "soft" genres of writing, not on the intellectual level of the "serious" tomes spanning 100s of pages about politics or science or the topic of the day. This book reminds me of how wrong that mindset is.Poetry isn't just flowery language and fluff. It can be deeply intellectual, even difficult to register at first. It can challenge you to understand; find a new way of looking at and describing things in life that our modern "give it to me in a text or tweet" minds are no longer accustomed to. Poetry of the kind found in this book, I think, is more akin to formal philosophy or even psychology, than what one might traditionally expect.It's going to take me many re-readings and some real thought, to really understand what I'm seeing on the page. And I'm OK with that. I may not go right out and buy 3 more poetry books, but I'm glad I got this one. Something different and definitely recommended if you find your readings are always in the realm of the academic or pure fantasy.

David Whyte is an amazing poet. This is an excellent first book to discover his genius.

Highly recommend this and all of his writings.

How could a David Whyte book be anything other than 5 stars.

I already knew that David Whyte is a good wordsmith, but something’s lacking for me. It’s sort of like an elusive shadow … you know it’s there, but can’t quite catch the focus of it.

This is the most beautiful book of poetry I've ever read. I hope it will speak to you as it has to me.

I love David Whyte's poetry, and this book is great to take on a backpack trip to read around the camp at night. It takes up little room, and while it weighs very little, it's a guilty backpacking pleasure