The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell BerryWhen 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.
MARGINALIA
So much to do this week. My wall is full of it. I feel myself being pulled in many directions, and I wanted to shrink back from everything. Day by day, I said, I’ll take it day by day.
ABOUT WENDELL BERRY
Poet, essayist, farmer, and novelist Wendell Berry was born on August 5, 1934, in New Castle, Kentucky. Berry is the author of more than thirty books of poetry, essays, and novels. His collections of poetry include New Collected Poems (Counterpoint, 2012); Given (Shoemaker Hoard, 2005); The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Counterpoint, 1988); A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979–1997 (Counterpoint, 1997); Entries: Poems (Pantheon, 1994); Traveling at Home (North Point… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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