Poetry Friday -- How to Be a Poet

 

image via Unsplash

How to Be a Poet

by Wendell Berry

(to remind myself)

i  

 
Make a place to sit down.   
Sit down. Be quiet.   
You must depend upon   
affection, reading, knowledge,   
skill—more of each   
than you have—inspiration,   
work, growing older, patience,   
for patience joins time   
to eternity. Any readers   
who like your poems,   
doubt their judgment.  

    You can read the other two sections of this wise poem at the Poetry Foundation.  I'm sharing it today as a reminder to myself. Maybe you needed to hear that, too?

    Kiesha has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Whispers From the Ridge.

Poetry Friday -- The Grace of the World

Vermont, 2015

The Peace of Wild Things

by 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.

(read the rest here, and take a few moments to listen to him reading the poem)

Impeachment, global warming, violence, mass extinctions, greedy corporations. But also Greta Thunberg...and art that has lasted 44,000 years...and the peace of wild things. These all give me some kind of hope for some kind of future. Plus, for the short term, we've got a Poetry Friday Roundup Schedule for January-June 2020!

For the even shorter term, head over to Liz Steinglass' blog right now for this week's Poetry Friday Roundup!

Poetry Friday -- The Impeded Stream

The Real Work
by Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

***        ***        ***        ***

Poetry writers and readers, let's gather at Jama's Alphabet Soup to share the words that will begin to heal our hearts, and then let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. I'm thinking about volunteering to support senior citizens through my community's resource center, getting involved in Stonewall Columbus' PFLAG group (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and donating to the NAACP. 

What causes will you champion with your discretionary income and your volunteer hours? 

Poetry Friday -- Vacation

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Freddie Boy

THE VACATION

by Wendell Berry

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation.

(the whole poem is at The Poetry Foundation)

It's not that I'm already thinking about vacation (well, maybe a little). I went looking for Wendell Berry to share and I found this reminder to be in the moment, really BE in the moment.

Anastasia has the Poetry Friday Roundup today at her poetry blog.

(edited to add today's cartoon from Hugh MacLeod at Gaping Void, which seems to fit nicely with Mr. Berry's poem...)

Poetry Friday: Grace

Grace
by Wendell Berry

for Gurney Norman, quoting him

The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes
the place it has been coming to forever.

(the rest is here)


I am thankful for this five days off to "be still" and relocate the grace in my life. Wishing the same for you in some way, shape, or form.

The round up this week is at Under the Covers.