Sunday, May 06, 2007

More on visit with Wendell Berry

I mentioned in my post of April 28 that a couple of friends of mine visited Wendell Berry back in February. Wendell told them you have to find ways to experience delight, even "glee." As my friends were leaving he pointed to an oriole nest and told them that his main way of finding glee is through birds, butterflies, flowers, and the like. You can tell that from his poetry.

For example, "The Peace of Wild Things" is one of my friend's favorites:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Keywords:: Wendell Berry poem The Peace of Wild Things

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