Sep 26 2018
Wendell Berry – Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
— from The Mad Farmer Poems, by Wendell Berry
/ Image by legends2k /
A manifesto from the fields and the topsoil to mark the change of seasons. A reminder of what’s real. A reminder to regularly push that mental reset button. A reminder to remain a healthy, cantankerous human standing amidst wonders…
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it.
Practice resurrection.
Have a beautiful day!
Recommended Books: Wendell Berry
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| The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982 | Given: Poems | Selected Poems of Wendell Berry | A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997 | The Mad Farmer Poems |
| More Books >> | ||||
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Wendell Berry
US (1934 – ) |
Oh Ivan, this is a most VALUED and TIMELY advice!
Thank you, thank you for the reminder to push the reset
button of the mind and soul by the mad farmer’s liberation
manifesto. And much gratitude to Wendell Berry for wording it so
perfectly. I’m a city-dweller planning my escape to a simpler life…
I want to embrace the mad-farmer!
Wow!! A fa Julius poem speaking to me, our nation, our culture. Just perfect.
Oh Ivan, thank you for this poem. Have read Wendell’s poetry, but not this one.
This one is powerful and speaks eloquently to our nation and culture. God’s
Peace and Love.