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The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America
“With this insightful book, David Whyte offers people in corporate life an opportunity to reach into the forgotten and ignored creative life (their own and the corporation’s) and literally water their souls with it. The result is a very well written book that can truly heal.”—Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PH.D., author of Women Who Run With the Wolves and The Gift of Story
Find professional and personal fulfilment through the poetry of both classic and modern masters—now revised and updated
Has your work lost its meaning? Have you forgotten the goals you hoped to achieve when you began your career? Are you afraid of pursuing your dreams?
In The Heart Aroused , David Whyte brings his unique perspective as poet and consultant to the workplace, showing readers how fulfilling work can be when they face their fears and follow their dreams. Going beneath the surface concerns about products and profits, organization and order, Whyte addresses the needs of the heart and soul, and the fears and desires that many workers keep hidden.
At a time when corporations are calling on employees for more creativity, dedication, and adaptability, and workers are trying desperately to balance home and work, this revised edition of The Heart Aroused is the essential guide to reinvigorating the soul.
Find professional and personal fulfilment through the poetry of both classic and modern masters—now revised and updated
Has your work lost its meaning? Have you forgotten the goals you hoped to achieve when you began your career? Are you afraid of pursuing your dreams?
In The Heart Aroused , David Whyte brings his unique perspective as poet and consultant to the workplace, showing readers how fulfilling work can be when they face their fears and follow their dreams. Going beneath the surface concerns about products and profits, organization and order, Whyte addresses the needs of the heart and soul, and the fears and desires that many workers keep hidden.
At a time when corporations are calling on employees for more creativity, dedication, and adaptability, and workers are trying desperately to balance home and work, this revised edition of The Heart Aroused is the essential guide to reinvigorating the soul.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
240 people are currently reading
2057 people want to read
About the author
David Whyte
86 books1,579 followersPoet David Whyte grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
The author of seven books of poetry and three books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon and Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.
His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit, the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry and the world of vocation, work and organizational leadership.
An Associate Fellow at Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American and international companies. In spring of 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania.
In organizational settings, using poetry and thoughtful commentary, he illustrates how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement; qualities needed if we are to respond to today’s call for increased creativity and adaptability in the workplace. He brings a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the nature of individual and organizational change, particularly through his unique perspectives on Conversational Leadership.
The author of seven books of poetry and three books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon and Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.
His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit, the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry and the world of vocation, work and organizational leadership.
An Associate Fellow at Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American and international companies. In spring of 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania.
In organizational settings, using poetry and thoughtful commentary, he illustrates how we can foster qualities of courage and engagement; qualities needed if we are to respond to today’s call for increased creativity and adaptability in the workplace. He brings a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the nature of individual and organizational change, particularly through his unique perspectives on Conversational Leadership.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
January 29, 2020
This is a tough book to review. In part, it's difficult to review because the subject matter and content of the book are themselves hard to describe. And in part, it is hard to review because I don't fully know how to discuss how I feel about this book yet.
David Whyte is a poet and an academic but also a corporate consultant. In this book he discusses the meeting place of those two vocations - the intersection between poetry and the corporate office. Whyte argues that we need to rediscover our imaginative selves in order to find meaning and purpose in the halls of the modern corporation. Work takes up far too much of our lives for us to bring only a portion of our whole person with us to the office. And poetry can help us find our creativity, our authenticity and our voice, even amidst the jungles and deserts of corporate America.
In a series of surprisingly fast-moving chapters, Whyte takes us from Beowulf to Coleridge to modern poetry in pursuit of metaphors and images that will help us find out courage, our creativity and ultimately our soul in the corporate office. At first, it might be easy to see his technique of tying poetic ideas to workplace situations as a gimmick. But Whyte is convincing in his knowledge of what troubles the corporate executive and the cubicle drone. He unearths our deepest desires and fears at work and gives us hope that we might be able to pursue the former and stare down the latter.
This is a book I will re-read eventually. There were far too many passages that I wanted to read and savor and speak aloud. Too many ideas that I needed to mull over and then come back to later. I found myself consistently wanting to read things out loud to my wife who was, God bless her, trying to read her own book. So I opted for posting quotes on Facebook instead.
Some of you reading this need to read this book. I don't know who you are, but you're out there. I can feel you. If anything I've written here piques your interest, give Whyte a shot. I don't think you'll be disappointed. And it might just save your soul.
David Whyte is a poet and an academic but also a corporate consultant. In this book he discusses the meeting place of those two vocations - the intersection between poetry and the corporate office. Whyte argues that we need to rediscover our imaginative selves in order to find meaning and purpose in the halls of the modern corporation. Work takes up far too much of our lives for us to bring only a portion of our whole person with us to the office. And poetry can help us find our creativity, our authenticity and our voice, even amidst the jungles and deserts of corporate America.
In a series of surprisingly fast-moving chapters, Whyte takes us from Beowulf to Coleridge to modern poetry in pursuit of metaphors and images that will help us find out courage, our creativity and ultimately our soul in the corporate office. At first, it might be easy to see his technique of tying poetic ideas to workplace situations as a gimmick. But Whyte is convincing in his knowledge of what troubles the corporate executive and the cubicle drone. He unearths our deepest desires and fears at work and gives us hope that we might be able to pursue the former and stare down the latter.
This is a book I will re-read eventually. There were far too many passages that I wanted to read and savor and speak aloud. Too many ideas that I needed to mull over and then come back to later. I found myself consistently wanting to read things out loud to my wife who was, God bless her, trying to read her own book. So I opted for posting quotes on Facebook instead.
Some of you reading this need to read this book. I don't know who you are, but you're out there. I can feel you. If anything I've written here piques your interest, give Whyte a shot. I don't think you'll be disappointed. And it might just save your soul.
August 8, 2012
This may have been the book that sparked my search for authenticity. While reading it, I came across a poem that I have consistently returned to over the past eight years, entitled, “Lost,” by David Wagoner.
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
I consider this book an essential resource for students of authenticity. Using poetry and myth, David Whyte speaks soulfully to those of us who have been wandering in the wasteland of corporate America and who, for whatever reasons, have awakened enough to realize something is missing.
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
I consider this book an essential resource for students of authenticity. Using poetry and myth, David Whyte speaks soulfully to those of us who have been wandering in the wasteland of corporate America and who, for whatever reasons, have awakened enough to realize something is missing.
November 7, 2019
“There are bland, faceless, and exploitative corporations, and there are starving, curmudgeonly or academic poets unwilling to come to terms with the greater realities of existence, but both are the vestigial remains of a world that I for one would be glad to see disappear. The poet needs the practicalities of making a living to test and temper the lyricism of insight and observation. The corporation needs the poet’s insight and powers of attention to weave the inner world of soul and creativity with the outer world of form and matter. The meeting of those two worlds forms the very heart of this book.”
“Confronted with the difficulty and drama of work, we look into our lives as we look into water. We kneel, as if by the side of a pool, seeing in one moment not only the fleeting and gossamer reflection of our own face, clouded and disturbed by every passing breath and the lives of all the innumerable creatures that live in its waters, but the hidden depths below, beyond our sight, sustaining and holding everything we comprehend.”
“Confronted with the difficulty and drama of work, we look into our lives as we look into water. We kneel, as if by the side of a pool, seeing in one moment not only the fleeting and gossamer reflection of our own face, clouded and disturbed by every passing breath and the lives of all the innumerable creatures that live in its waters, but the hidden depths below, beyond our sight, sustaining and holding everything we comprehend.”
January 21, 2020
For anyone who wants to explore the connection between their work and life outside of work, this book is pure gold. Whyte helps readers to navigate the stresses and pitfalls of working by using poetry, myth, and metaphorical imagery to build bridges between interior and exterior realities of human experience. If work feels like a stress festival, and if you love poetry, imagination, and myth, you may find this book to be an oasis of solace and wisdom, as well as a very practical guide for feeling better about swimming in the land of limited time and endless responsibilities.
August 23, 2021
A treasure that brings tears to my eyes. I bought this book for $1 in the Mission District on a formative trip to San Francisco several years ago and have carried it with me ever since. My journey with books has been the journey to fall in love with the world. To meet friends, find security, and finally--finally--learn to think beautiful thoughts that are my own.
I think this is the last book I'll post on Goodreads. It's been a great experience, and I'm ready to step away.
I think this is the last book I'll post on Goodreads. It's been a great experience, and I'm ready to step away.
July 4, 2018
Stupid good. Like a slow sip of great whisky...burns going down but clears you right up. Tons to process.
Read
April 1, 2024Thank you David Whyte for your healing words 🫡
“Discovering we are not the center of creation becomes a blessed release and a marvelous unburdening. It allows us to meet creation on its own terms, to see it as a continuing form of revelation rather than a source of disappointment when it does not make our career a number-one priority. The burden of creativity is the burden of identity. Meeting creation on its own terms, we are able to stop our interminable self-preoccupied monologue for one precious moment and hear creation speaking to someone greater and larger than the person indicated by our job descriptions. We are not our job descriptions, and the small, confining prisons those descriptions have made for us.”
“Discovering we are not the center of creation becomes a blessed release and a marvelous unburdening. It allows us to meet creation on its own terms, to see it as a continuing form of revelation rather than a source of disappointment when it does not make our career a number-one priority. The burden of creativity is the burden of identity. Meeting creation on its own terms, we are able to stop our interminable self-preoccupied monologue for one precious moment and hear creation speaking to someone greater and larger than the person indicated by our job descriptions. We are not our job descriptions, and the small, confining prisons those descriptions have made for us.”
October 10, 2019
While there’s much of the book that has dated references to the corporate experience of the late 80s and 90s, I feel that there are still a number of deep and important ideas relevant to the corporate experience of today. Whyte uses helpful metaphors to identify the monoculture of the corporate experience, and how easy it is to lose ourselves in the identify of the larger organizations we are a part of. He offers wonderful poetry, language, and examples on how to deepen in to our personal callings and mysteries that expand far beyond our organizational participation as a way to honestly bring our gifts into the world.
June 2, 2017
I marked so many passages in this book, and it was a very worthwhile read. Something about the flow and how the concepts were all connected could have been a little more focused. I've already recommended it a few times though.
April 27, 2020
这本书是在2020年1月美国之行在加州的Bart's Books买的，记得问男店员有没有David Whyte的书(听过Onbeing 的Krista Tippett曾经采访过David Whyte)，他直接就从身下柜台的下面取出来了，我当时就惊了，因为他的书我去了不少书店都没有，包括旧金山的城市之光等。
把诗歌和企业结合起来，难度本身就不小，书中的一些文字非常具有启发性，但是我感觉作者也经常任由自己思维的跳跃，诗人嘛。书的后半段，关于一些实操的问题，是作者试图帮助读者更好地理解书中的一些想表达却又很难表达的帮助手段，也值得仔细阅读。
这本书其实也是可以从任何一页拿起来就读的。书中一些关于人生和人到中年的困惑，很有同感。个人感觉，其实书中想表达的一些有关soul的思考，对个人要求不算高，缺对企业要求很高。应该说是理想企业的目标。关注人的精神层面，让人作为企业的主人以完全释放自己的方式去投入工作，融合自己的人生和工作，境界很高，现实很难。
记下一些印象深刻的文字：
The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the beyond it.
P13
The German poet Rilke said:
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively
by constantly greater beings.
The only real question is not one of winning or losing, but of experiencing life with an ever-increasing depth. The storyteller says, why not go down, at home or at work, into the lake, consciously, like Beowulf. Don't die on the shore. The stakes are very high; the stakes are your life.
P71
Always this energy smoulders inside
when it remains unlit
the body fills with dense smoke.
P91
A hand moves,and the fire's whirling takes different shapes.
…all things change when we do.
The first word,Ah,blossomed into all others.
Each of them is true.
P93
As Rilke said,"Where I am folded in upon myself, there I am a lie."
P134
In ancient Ireland there was a saying,"Three equals: a king,a harper,and a poet."
P164
Don’t leave the old road for a new one!
Don’t meddle in other people’s affairs!
Save your anger until the following day!
P210
The way to build a poem,a life, or a lifelike and useful system is to fold meaning into the simplest elements and allow complexity to emerge from their natural self-generation.
P309
把诗歌和企业结合起来，难度本身就不小，书中的一些文字非常具有启发性，但是我感觉作者也经常任由自己思维的跳跃，诗人嘛。书的后半段，关于一些实操的问题，是作者试图帮助读者更好地理解书中的一些想表达却又很难表达的帮助手段，也值得仔细阅读。
这本书其实也是可以从任何一页拿起来就读的。书中一些关于人生和人到中年的困惑，很有同感。个人感觉，其实书中想表达的一些有关soul的思考，对个人要求不算高，缺对企业要求很高。应该说是理想企业的目标。关注人的精神层面，让人作为企业的主人以完全释放自己的方式去投入工作，融合自己的人生和工作，境界很高，现实很难。
记下一些印象深刻的文字：
The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the beyond it.
P13
The German poet Rilke said:
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively
by constantly greater beings.
The only real question is not one of winning or losing, but of experiencing life with an ever-increasing depth. The storyteller says, why not go down, at home or at work, into the lake, consciously, like Beowulf. Don't die on the shore. The stakes are very high; the stakes are your life.
P71
Always this energy smoulders inside
when it remains unlit
the body fills with dense smoke.
P91
A hand moves,and the fire's whirling takes different shapes.
…all things change when we do.
The first word,Ah,blossomed into all others.
Each of them is true.
P93
As Rilke said,"Where I am folded in upon myself, there I am a lie."
P134
In ancient Ireland there was a saying,"Three equals: a king,a harper,and a poet."
P164
Don’t leave the old road for a new one!
Don’t meddle in other people’s affairs!
Save your anger until the following day!
P210
The way to build a poem,a life, or a lifelike and useful system is to fold meaning into the simplest elements and allow complexity to emerge from their natural self-generation.
P309
June 23, 2022
I heard David Whyte being interviewed in an On Being podcast and thought he was the cutest Irish man with magical tid bits to say. During this podcast they spoke of this book so the hopes were high but the book kinda fell flat for me. It was a good chunk of super intellectual over your head musings that left me 🤔🤔🧐 (honestly thought it was going to just be poetry so that was a plot twist). Definitely good stuff to say focusing on Corp America and the emphasis we put on “success” within a working role. I loved his emphasis on bringing our souls into work instead of segmenting ourselves but alas
QOTB: “The rich flow of creativity, innovation, and almost musical complexity we are looking for in a fulfilled work life cannot be reached through trying or working harder. The medium for the soul, it seems, must be the message. The river down which we raft is made up of the same substance as the great sea of our destination. It is an ever-moving, firsthand creative engagement with life and with others that completes itself simply by being itself. This kind of approach must be seen as the "great art" of working in order to live, of remembering what is most important in the order of priorities and what place we occupy in a much greater story than the one our job description defines. Other "great arts," such as poetry, can remind and embolden us to this end. Whatever we choose to do, the stakes are very high. With a little more care, a little more courage, and, above all, a little more soul, our lives can be so easily discovered and celebrated in work, and not, as now, squandered and lost in its shadow.”
QOTB: “The rich flow of creativity, innovation, and almost musical complexity we are looking for in a fulfilled work life cannot be reached through trying or working harder. The medium for the soul, it seems, must be the message. The river down which we raft is made up of the same substance as the great sea of our destination. It is an ever-moving, firsthand creative engagement with life and with others that completes itself simply by being itself. This kind of approach must be seen as the "great art" of working in order to live, of remembering what is most important in the order of priorities and what place we occupy in a much greater story than the one our job description defines. Other "great arts," such as poetry, can remind and embolden us to this end. Whatever we choose to do, the stakes are very high. With a little more care, a little more courage, and, above all, a little more soul, our lives can be so easily discovered and celebrated in work, and not, as now, squandered and lost in its shadow.”
February 12, 2020
David Whyte's writing reveals that he's a man who's truly explored the depth of his own soul and treaded through the dark to see through to the light. He brings various elements of spiritual life in his prose to bring to light what is corporations today: a desire for control, authoritarianism, desire for certainty and fixation, displacement of human wholeness, cutting off the darkness, lack of creativity and aliveness, lack of honesty and courage, cutting off from the ecology, a campground for one's own abyss, and many more.
His writing is poetic and abstract, may be challenging for consumption for those in the corporate environment to reap the benefits.
His writing is poetic and abstract, may be challenging for consumption for those in the corporate environment to reap the benefits.
September 17, 2020
“If work is all about doing, then the soul is all about being: the indiscriminate enjoyer of everything that comes our way. If work is the world, then the soul is our home. This book explores the possibility of being at home in the world, melding soul life with work life, the inner ocean of longing and belonging with the outer ground of strategy and organizational control. Its aim is to reconcile the left-hand ledger sheet of the soul with the right-hand ledger sheet of the corporate world, a kind of double-entry bookkeeping that can bring together two opposing sides of ourselves.”
April 20, 2025
More excellent prose from Whyte. Love how he breaks down reference works like the final part of Odyssey with Agamemnon and Cassandra as an analogy for being fooled about a truth we are not willing to recognize. How death can come to us in many forms as a corporate employee, unless we are open to living our true selves. Solomon story and Fionn story are gems, juxtaposed with his own story of applying for naturalist intern in Galapagos I have read before in his earlier work. He may get wordy and theoretical at times, but the journey is worthwhile.
Read
December 11, 2017Poetry and our contemporary working life never had more to say to each other, including those ensconced in corporate life where one would think poetry and lyricism have been relegated to the basement . . . and weekends (if you're lucky).
A modern-day prophet of the way the humanities shape, inform and revolutionize our internal lives and the lives we share with others, Whyte invites us to see even the most mundane (life in a shirt and tie) as ecstatic, trans-formative . . . a journey.
A modern-day prophet of the way the humanities shape, inform and revolutionize our internal lives and the lives we share with others, Whyte invites us to see even the most mundane (life in a shirt and tie) as ecstatic, trans-formative . . . a journey.
December 30, 2017
Oh there were a lot of WORDS in this book. Some of them quite lyrical. It took me weeks to get through it because of both the font and the wordiness. I loved some of the connections and conclusions that Whyte makes, especially about preserving innocence while valuing experience, about bringing genuine and complex humanity into the workplace. But this could have been half the length and made the same points. (I’m not normally a complainer about length, FWIW.)
February 12, 2018
This book challenged my cynical attitudes about what level of creativity and authenticity can be had in the standard white collar corporate American career. I remain pessimistic on that front overall, but less so after reading this. Loved the application of literary analysis; this book summarizes a number of "life lessons" relevant to just about anybody in most walks of life, regardless of occupation. Sometimes meanders a bit before returning to its main points, but highly thought-provoking.
April 19, 2020
I read parts of this book almost 20 years ago and had a hart time getting into it. I recently reread and found it relevant and powerful. As a CEO of a company, I am interested in how to build a culture and company that will encourage people to bring their whole self, including heart and soul into work. I think that work can provide meaning, creativity, and growth to people. A thought provoking look at work and career as part of pursuing the good life.
May 26, 2020
Didn't finish this because it was a library book but really enjoyed what I did read. This book looks into the soul of corporate life, talks about the real motivations you have and then the tasks you have to do on a job. It talks about Beowulf the story and how you have to go deep into the lake/darkness to really understand yourself and that corporations don't really support this well.
I'd love to re-borrow and read more of this book.
I'd love to re-borrow and read more of this book.
January 1, 2021
Found this book at a perfect time in my life when I was looking to find meaning in the business world. David Whyte brings the soul back to the corporate world and brings poetry to breathe life into the practical. This book asks a lot of its reader, combining two worlds that often live in opposition, but for those who brave the adventure, it is a doorway into a more soulful, balance life.
February 13, 2022
What's a characteristic of a good book? I think one is that, when you reread it later in life some new insight reveals itself that you just didn't catch that last time around. I first read this book over 15 years ago and, while what I got out of it then was different that what my older self got this time, it continues to speak to me.
December 11, 2022
A friend of mine suggested a recorded version of a talk? podcast? of David Whyte around leadership. It was interesting enough for me to be intrigued to hear/read more from him. I found the "Taking the Homeward Road chapter to be most relevant to me, but it is an interesting way to consider your work life and what you accept or don't perhaps unwittingly.
September 29, 2017
I recommend this read for every one interested in Organizational development and involvement in Work and Life in a very deeper level.
https://penpositive.com/2017/09/29/ca...
https://penpositive.com/2017/09/29/ca...
July 15, 2020
A lovely reminder to awaken your deepest, most authentic self/soul and allow it to guide your life. If you can’t or won’t do that, then at least unhide your essential nature and bring it to work with you.
January 9, 2023
Can we find joy in the work we do? In poetry, Whyte expands on the meaning of work, and explores ways that even the mundane can become meaningful, if only to us--and ultimately create a vision for the future that delivers the fulfillment we seek.
May 31, 2019
Life altering
March 26, 2021
Content 5, writing style 5
Love this book, would love to keep reading through it over and over!
Love this book, would love to keep reading through it over and over!
February 9, 2022
Really beautiful and thought provoking in several areas. Would read parts of it again.
April 24, 2022
What a book.
Would strongly recommend.
Would strongly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews