Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.
To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
really listen
to another.
Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.
Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
– Start Close In by David Whyte, from River Flow: New & Selected Poems
At our University Church in Yale Bible Study meeting two weeks ago one of the students requested prayers for rejuvenation. Just two days into the semester, the stress of being at Yale when it is in full swing had already resurfaced for many.
As I thought about the student’s prayer and reflected on my own adjustment back into the flurry of the school year, the poem above resurfaced for me. It is a poem I learned about from the one and only Karis Slattery, fellow W{holy} Queer leader and Program Manager at the Office of LGBTQ Resources.
“Start close in” the poem says. Don’t rush to what is next or what is ahead. Just start here. Step by step. Moment by moment. Task by task. Meal by meal. Thought by thought.
As someone who tends to think five steps down the road, this poem is exactly what I need. Maybe you need it too? Where is your “here?” Is there a way you can begin right there?