Pilgrim

PILGRIM…

But your loss brought you here to walk
under one name and to walk under one name only, 
and to find the guise under which all loss can live; 
remember, you were given that name every day 
along the way, remember, you were greeted as such, 
and treated as such, and you needed no other name; 
other people seemed to know you even before you gave up 
being a shadow on the road and came into the light, 
even before you sat down, 
broke bread and drank wine, 
wiped the wind-tears from your eyes: 
Pilgrim they called you again 
and again. Pilgrim.

Excerpt from the poem ‘Camino’
From ‘Pilgrim: Poems by David Whyte’ 
Many Rivers Press © 2013

The Poetry & Prose Collection by David Whyte

David Whyte

Photograph by Leora Sanchez – Camino de Santiago 2016