The Bell and the Blackbird
This week, we’ll be looking at just the first stanza of one of my all time favorite poems, The Bell and the Blackbird by David Whyte. I like this poem so much that it’s currently the name of this substack until I can think of something better. Here’s the stanza:
The sound of a bell
Still reverberating,
or a blackbird calling
from a corner of the field,
asking you to wake
into this life,
or inviting you deeper
into the one that waits.
For me, this poem describes the dichotomy between the thinking and the experiencing self. The sound of the bell is referencing a call to meditation or prayer, and is symbolic of deepness- learning, introspecting, choosing to go deeper. On the other hand, we have the call of the blackbird, which is calling you not to think or learn or go deep but simply to listen to the call exactly as it is. I will come back to this poem and this specific stanza multiple times, because to me there is a lot of wisdom and multiple different lessons in this one stanza, but for now I will just stick to the basics: a life well lived has both of these, not necessarily in equal measure, but definitely in balance. If you have experience without deeper, intentional parts of your life, you can fall into hedonism; alternatively, if you are only deep and intentional you miss so much of what living well is.
David Whyte has written and spoken about what is behind this poem many times, and I encourage you to read and listen to those- his books that include both this poem and his commentary are available here and here, this podcast originally introduced me to his work, and these podcasts are also great.