On the way tomorrow to visit the Berry Center in New Grange, Kentucky. I have been reading poems and essays by Wendell Berry over the past few weeks. What an antidote to the midterms! Will be on the road in Kentucky exploring Berry country.
In his youth Berry lived in New York City, California and worked with Wallace Stegner at Stanford University, writing poems and novels only to return to his Kentucky home to farm where his family has lived for generations. He has devoted himself to the land as a farmer, as a citizen, writer and as an advocate. Hope to hear him read at the Kentucky Arts Festival Saturday. Here is a poem he wrote in 2003:
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.