Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Search the Poetry Chaikhana site:

<<Previous Poem | View All Poems by Wendell Berry | Next Poem >>
Sabbaths 1985, V by Wendell Berry (1934 - ) Timeline Original Language English Secular or Eclectic Contemporary How long does it take to make the woods? As long as it takes to make the world. The woods is present as the world is, the presence of all its past and of all its time to come. It is always finished, it is always being made, the act of its making forever greater than the act of its destruction. It is a part of eternity for its end and beginning belong to the end and beginning of all things, the beginning lost in the end, the end in the beginning. What is the way to the woods, how do you go there? By climbing up through the six days' field, kept in all the body's years, the body's sorrow, weariness, and joy. By passing through the narrow gate on the far side of that field where the pasture grass of the body's life gives way to the high, original standing of the trees. By coming into the shadow, the shadow of the grace of the strait way's ending, the shadow of the mercy of light. Why must the gate be narrow? Because you cannot pass beyond it burdened. To come into the woods you must leave behind the six days' world, all of it, all of its plans and hopes. You must come without weapon or tool, alone, expecting nothing, remembering nothing, into the ease of sight, the brotherhood of eye and leaf.     -- from A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997, by Wendell Berry Amazon.com   / Photo by mindfulness /	Themes   Bliss   Bower   Light   Smile   Tree Recommended Books The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982, by Wendell Berry Entries, by Wendell Berry Given: Poems, by Wendell Berry The Mad Farmer Poems, by Wendell Berry Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, by Wendell Berry More >>
<<Previous Poem | More Poems by Wendell Berry | Next Poem >>

Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

Something so healing, so earthly -- in the most sanctified sense -- in this Sabbath meditation by Wendell Berry.

His phrases of the "six days' world" and the "six day's field" are references to how we see the world and interact with the world on all the other days of the week, the non-Sabbath days. In the "six days' world" we work, we do, we accomplish, we acquire. Often it is a world of control and burdens, "plans and hopes." It is a world of objects and tools to manipulate those objects. Too often it is a world of domination and separation.

An essential reason for the Sabbath is to remind us that that "six days' world" is not the real world nor is it the whole world, it is only one way of interacting with the world. When we take a true day of rest, and enter a majestic space not made by men -- like the ancient, silent woods -- we remember that we participate in a larger life, eternal, eternally recycling itself. We are reminded that there is a wholeness to the world we live in, something we can't segment and sell without harm to ourselves. The Sabbath, the woods, the wilds, these remind us of the sacred, whole, eternal spaces within the human spirit. In true rest and quiet awe, we return to ourselves.

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.