Poets & Writers

The Peace of Wild Things

A poem for the weekend after a long week.

The Peace of Wild Things

In these unsure times, take to heart the words of poet, writer, activist and farmer Wendell Berry:

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.

 


 

Listen to Wendell Berry read this poem, courtesy of the public radio program On Being:

 


 

Berry spoke with Bill Moyers about his work in 2013:

Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry is the author of more than 40 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and has received numerous awards and honors, including the National Humanities Medal, which he received from President Obama in 2010. Follow him on Twitter: @WendellDaily.

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