FINISHED READING - Consolations & Essentials by David Whyte

After feeling enthused by watching an interesting You Tube conversation with David Whyte, I bought Essentials - a compilation of his poetry mainly, and Consolations - a series of short pieces exploring the meaning and ramifications of words. There is much to be admired here. The perceptiveness, the clarity of expression plus the desire to stretch our conceptions, to reveal another way that we could view aspects of human nature and understanding. There is usually a suggestion of a spiritual undertow to most of his poetry, and that spirit suffuses everything else too. In Consolations he extols - the virtues of hiding aspects of yourself - the usefulness of procrastination - that a genius is something we all have, its not just really talented individuals. His piece on the word Despair,whilst acknowledging its a difficult experience, also reminds us that it will pass, if you let it, resist grappling, fighting or wallowing in it. To just allow despair to gradually ease and transform itself. In all of his Consolations he is ever so gently challenging.

David Whyte is primarily known as a poet, but is also as an inspirational speaker, a social and spiritual commentator, plus being a consultant and lecturer on business leadership. Though it is clear he has trained in Buddhist practices, he writes in a way that is accessible to all comers, theist or atheist, and even those who don't really care either way. He tries to connect our lively most grounded experience to something that proffers a degree of palliative wisdom. Studiously avoiding the often trite sentimentality of self help and well being gurus. He is ploughing a particularly distinct and well developed furrow here. The writing in Consolations can sometimes feel like light therapy for the alternative thinking classes. His challenging or adjusting of perceptions occasionally veering into being a poetically infused version of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

You can definitely have enough of even such a very good thing. Don't get me wrong, there is much to be praised and enthused about in both these books. He does have incredible richly succinct reflections, all expressed in a simple paired back and unfussy way of writing, whether its prose or poetry. There is, however, something about the tone of the Consolations, which makes them feel as though they're all written on the same emotional level. Well adjusted, but perhaps leaning a bit onto the 'beige' side. I found myself eventually tiring of his style of writing. I think I wanted more oomph or grist in them. Something they seemed to indicate they might be capable of offering, but fell short of. In the end, they tended to blend into this huge glutenous lump of beautiful insightful stuff. That remained difficult to digest, even when I paced myself by deciding to read them aloud just one piece per day.

CARROT REVIEW - 5/8  - Essentials

CARROT REVIEW - 4/8 - Consolations