{"id":6446,"date":"2019-05-17T07:11:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T14:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6446"},"modified":"2019-05-17T07:11:16","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T14:11:16","slug":"wendell-berry-the-peace-of-wild-things-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/17\/wendell-berry-the-peace-of-wild-things-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendell Berry – The Peace of Wild Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Peace of Wild Things
\nby Wendell Berry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

When despair for the world grows in me
\nand I wake in the night at the least sound
\nin fear of what my life and my children\u2019s lives may be,
\nI go and lie down where the wood drake
\nrests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
\nI come into the peace of wild things
\nwho do not tax their lives with forethought
\nof grief. I come into the presence of still water.
\nAnd I feel above me the day-blind stars
\nwaiting with their light. For a time
\nI rest in the grace of the world, and am free.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Selected Poems of Wendell Berry<\/a>, by Wendell Berry<\/font><\/p>\n


\n\/ Image by DeingeL<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Rereading my comments from a few years ago, I smile at the memory. A special moment, a special day\u2026<\/p>\n

My wife and I have been going for walks recently in an area called Roger\u2019s Grove. The park has a small lake with a couple of islands at its center. It is a favorite spot for Canadian geese this time of year. As we stroll around the lake we sometimes see a gray heron standing in meditative stillness among the reeds along the banks. Most recently we noticed some new visitors: one and then two bright white pelicans, looking a bit awkward in form but moving with the grace of swans upon the lake\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, we had an unexpected sight: Those two pelicans had become thirty pelicans! The lake was filled with the bright white beings! We walked around the lake in an awed daze. We watched as the birds paddled around the lake in groups, tacking together in their movements, like a synchronized drifting dance, all gliding to the left and then, with some unseen signal, all turning right again. They even dipped their heads beneath the water all at once, sometimes several times in a row, down and up and down and up, a quiet undulation rippling through the group. They seemed to revel in this sleepy synchronicity of movement beneath the warming sun.<\/p>\n

It was a magical moment. A healing moment. An encounter with the peace of wild things.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just it\u2013 these, like all living beings, experience struggle, trauma, death, yet they continue to reside in the present moment and celebrate the bliss of a sweet afternoon when it is upon them. And in this way wild things are teachers to us all.<\/p>\n

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.<\/i><\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Wendell Berry<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nGiven: Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nSelected Poems of Wendell Berry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nA Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Mad Farmer Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\"Wendell<\/a><\/td>\n\nWendell Berry<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US (1934 \u2013 )
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em><\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

More poetry by Wendell Berry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1255,817,628,1710,2267,312],"class_list":["post-6446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-lake","tag-nature","tag-peace","tag-pelicans","tag-the-peace-of-wild-things","tag-wendell-berry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6447,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6446\/revisions\/6447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}