The Wish to be Generous ALL that I serve will die, all my delights,the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,the silent lilies standing in the woods,the woods, the hill, the whole earth, allwill burn in man’s evil, or dwindlein its own age. Let the world bring on methe sleep of darkness without stars,… Continue reading Wendell Berry
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front Love the quick profit, the annual raise,vacation with pay. Want moreof everything ready-made. Be afraidto know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head.Not even your future will be a mysteryany more. Your mind will be punched in a cardand shut away in… Continue reading Wendell Berry
And I have dreamedof the morning coming inlike a bird through the windownot burdened by a thought, —Wendell Berry, from “The Design of The House: Ideal and Hard Time,” New Collected Poems (Counterpoint Press, 2012)
Accept what comes from silence.Make the best you can of it.Of the little words that comeout of the silence, like prayersprayed back to the one who prays,make a poem that does not disturbthe silence from which it came. — Wendell Berry, from “How To Be a Poet,” Given. (Counterpoint March 1, 2006) Originally published 2005.
Geese appear high over uspass, and the sky closes. Abandon,as in love or sleep, holdsthem to their way, clearin the ancient faith: what we needis here. And we pray, notfor new earth or heaven, but to bequiet in heart, and in eye,clear. What we need is here. — Wendell Berry, from “The Wild Geese,” Collected… Continue reading Wendell Berry
Did I believe that I had a clear mind? It was like the water of a river flowing shallow over the ice. And now that the rising water has broken the ice, I see what I thought was the light is part of the darkness. —Wendell Berry, “Breaking,” The Country of Marriage (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,… Continue reading Wendell Berry
ALL that I serve will die, all my delights, the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field, the silent lilies standing in the woods, the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all will burn in man’s evil, or dwindle in its own age. Let the world bring on me the sleep of darkness without… Continue reading Wendell Berry,
The world is full of places. Why is it that I am here? — Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House: Essays (Counterpoint, 2012)
The question before me, now that I am old, is not how to be dead, which I know from enough practice, but how to be alive, as these worn hills still tell, and some paintings of Paul Cezanne, and this mere singing wren, who thinks he’s alive forever, this instant, and may be. — Wendell… Continue reading Wendell Berry
Sometimes I knew in all my mind and heart why I had done what I had done, and I welcomed the sacrifice. But there were times too when I lived in a desert and felt no joy and saw no hope and could not remember my old feelings. Then I lived by faith alone, faith… Continue reading Wendell Berry
The Vale of Soul-Making 