1.07.2010

Wendell Berry

Last spring I discovered a poet's work in a small store in downtown Chattanooga called The Grapevine. The poet is Wendell Barry, and I love his short verses. Here is a sample:


What I fear most is despair

for the world and us: forever less


of beauty, silence, open air,


gratitude, unbidden happiness,


affection, unegotistical desire.



---



The incarnate Word is with us,

is still speaking, is present

always, yet leaves no sign

but everything that is.



---

When we convene again

to understand the world,

the first speaker will again

point silently out the window

at the hillside in its season,

sunlit, under the snow,

and we will nod silently,

and silently stand and go.

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