The ruminations of an artist on art & life...art quilts, beading, knitting, drawing, painting, printmaking, bookmaking are all my passions, I love to explore creating....

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Poetry Transforms Despair


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. 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.

I awoke this morning feeling great sadness and despair for people's inhumanity to fellow beings. My response was to put on some soothing music and read poetry. The photo above I took on my trip to Alaska last summer---throughout my life I have found refuge in the woods and wilderness---which the poet Wendell Berry expresses beautifully here.

3 comments:

Tina Di Mauro said...

Very interesting blog. Kiss kiss

Aurora said...

Thank you for your comment, La Cuoca.

Mary Timme said...

"...where daylight blind stars..." Wow! what a line! Terrific poem. To me, it is interesting how each of us sees and experiences our natural world. A Peaceful post.