{"id":7176,"date":"2021-06-11T08:09:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T15:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=7176"},"modified":"2021-06-11T08:21:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T15:21:14","slug":"wendell-berry-how-to-be-a-poet-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/11\/wendell-berry-how-to-be-a-poet-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendell Berry – How to Be a Poet"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to Be a Poet
\nby Wendell Berry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

(To remind myself)<\/i><\/p>\n

i
\nMake a place to sit down.
\nSit down. Be quiet.
\nYou must depend upon
\naffection, reading, knowledge,
\nskill — more of each
\nthan you have — inspiration,
\nwork, growing older, patience,
\nfor patience joins time
\nto eternity. Any readers
\nwho like your poems,
\ndoubt their judgment.<\/p>\n

ii
\nBreathe with unconditional breath
\nthe unconditioned air.
\nShun electric wire.
\nCommunicate slowly. Live
\na three-dimensioned life;
\nstay away from screens.
\nStay away from anything
\nthat obscures the place it is in.
\nThere are no unsacred places;
\nthere are only sacred places
\nand desecrated places.<\/p>\n

iii
\nAccept what comes from silence.
\nMake the best you can of it.
\nOf the little words that come
\nout of the silence, like prayers
\nprayed back to the one who prays,
\nmake a poem that does not disturb
\nthe silence from which it came.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> — from Given: Poems<\/a>, by Wendell Berry<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Louis Vest<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

One doesn’t have to be a poet to inspired by this poem. In fact, it’s not really about writing poetry at all, is it? It’s really about how to be present, how to inhabit the world quietly and notice more than ourselves. That is when the best poetry is born.<\/p>\n

The first verse invites is to settle down. Reading those first few lines, I feel my own bones settling awkwardly into a state of rest and stillness. And there is the slow interior work of reading, cultivating inspiration, the private work on the blank page. I love that he lists “growing older” as one of the necessary tasks of the poet. And patience–<\/p>\n

for patience joins time
\nto eternity.<\/i><\/p>\n

The second verse seems to be more about our relationship to place, both exterior and interior space. In recent years I haven’t done so well with avoiding electric wire and screens, but there was a time some years ago when I did just that, literally. I embraced my Luddite instincts as much as practical. It does shift one’s sense of reality and connection to the world. The transition feels stressful at first, and then, slowly, the world around us starts to take on a new depth and life, becoming a slow-speaking friend in constant, quiet communication.<\/p>\n

What are the ways we have been taught to not recognize our ongoing dialog with all around us?<\/p>\n

There are no unsacred places;
\nthere are only sacred places
\nand desecrated places.<\/i><\/p>\n

And he concludes with that wonderful meditation on silence. We think a poem is a collection of words, but the best poetry simply gives shape to silence.<\/p>\n

Accept what comes from silence…<\/p>\n

make a poem that does not disturb
\nthe silence from which it came.<\/i><\/p>\n

Have a beautiful weekend, remembering to breathe the unconditional breath!<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

<\/p>\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<\/table>\n

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

US (1934 – )
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

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

How to Be a Poet by Wendell Berry (To remind myself) i Make a place to sit down. Sit down. Be quiet. You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge, skill — more of each than you have — inspiration, work, growing older, patience, for patience joins time to eternity. Any readers who like your poems, […]<\/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":[2422,2423,700,939,312],"class_list":["post-7176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-how-to-be-a-poet","tag-how-to-write-poetry","tag-silence","tag-stillness","tag-wendell-berry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7176","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=7176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7178,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7176\/revisions\/7178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}