Poem for Father's Day

On this father's day, I want to share a beautiful poem by David Whyte in honor of my father Rob Levin and my partner David Grimsley who are both amazing fathers. May it help you honor some fathers in your life too...

MY DAUGHTER ASLEEP by David Whyte

Carrying a child,

I carry a bundle 

of sleeping

future appearances.

I carry

my daughter adrift

on my shoulder,

dreaming 

her slender

dreams

and

I carry her

beneath

the window,

watching

her moon lit

palm

open

and close

like a tiny

folded

map,

each line

a path that leads

where I can't go,

so that I read her palm

not knowing

what I read

and

walk with her

in moon light

not knowing

with whom I walk,

making

invisible prayers

to go on

with her

where I can't

go,

conversing

with so many

unknowns

that must know her

more intimately

than I do.

And so to these

unspoken shadows

and this 

broad night

I make

a quiet

request

to the

great parental

darkness

to hold her

when I cannot,

to comfort her

when I am gone,

to help her learn to love

the unknown

for itself,

to take it

gladly

like

a lantern

for the way

before her,

to help her see

where ordinary

light will 

not help,

where happiness 

has fled,

where faith

cannot reach.

My prayer tonight

for the great

and hidden symmetries

of life

to reward this

faith I have

and twin 

her passages

of loneliness

with friendship,

her exiles

with home coming,

her first awkward

steps with

promised onward leaps.

May she find

in all this,

day or night,

the beautiful

centrality

of pure opposites,

may she discover

before she grows

old,

not to choose

so easily

between past

and present,

may she find

in

one or the other

her gifts

acknowledged.

And so

as I helped

to name her

I help to name

these

powers,

I bring

to life

what is needed, 

I invoke

the help she'll

want

following

those moonlit lines

into a future

uncradled

by me but

parented

by all

I call.

As she grows

away

from me,

may these life lines

grow with her,

keep her safe,

so

with my open palm

whose lines

have run before her

to make a safer way,

I touch her 

smooth cheek

and bless her,

this night

and beyond it,

and for every 

unknown

night to come.

Give thanks for the nourishing masculine energy of the sun. May it bless all of our crops, vistas, and intentions in the coming Summer season. 

Much love and light,

 Hannah