Wendell Berry
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If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, you won’t fully appreciate what Wendell Berry offers in this haikuesque poem of just three lines. Come away from modernity to be still enough to catch this passing moment before the looming shadows of daily life hide, once again, the extraordinary deepening grounds waiting in plain sight. XX (2012)…
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Flipping through my copy of Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems, I found myself drawn to the poems that conclude the volume, echoes of the Mad Farmer filling the pages. Try as I might to find a softer piece for this post, I kept returning to this poem and the haunting refrain,…
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Savoring the pace of summer here at home with my family! Sure, there are projects that need to be addressed such as the “new” doors that need to be stained from the addition we put on back in 2020. I need to touch up the rust spots on the van and the garlic needs to…
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Either Wendell Berry and I share the same mother, or he just perfectly captured the power of forgiveness that many mothers exhibit. As I read this poem for the first time, I imagined myself as the speaker. Though not outwardly rebellious to my mother’s face, the boy I presented at home bore no likeness to…
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Sabbath Poem II (1995) by Wendell Berry The best reward in going to the woods Is being lost to other people, and Lost sometimes to myself. I’m at the end Of no bespeaking wire to spoil my goods; I send no letter back I do not bring. Whoever wants me now must hunt me down…
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Am I having a midlife crisis? After over two decades of teaching, I am spent. Over the past few months, I have begun to seriously question my role as an educator. The kind words of Wendell Berry, reminding me that “as a high school English teacher you are necessary, and I’m guessing with some confidence…
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“It is no more possible to live in the future than it is to live in the past. If life is not now, it is never.” Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House Meditations on Modernity By Vincent H. Anastasi 2023 IV. The Life Let this be the day well done: not the timely completion of all…
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Admittedly, I should have posted this yesterday to allow you all the time to Sabbath either on Saturday or Sunday with this Wendell Berry wafer. But as these days are full with life and activity, this post had to wait until now. And yet, the timelessness of Berry’s wisdom about “how to be alive” ever…
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To close the year, let me share with you one gift my daughter shared with me this Christmas as a charge for the new year. Along with a copy of Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems, Ethney gave me a beautiful sonnet inspiring us to nurture our imaginations and feed the fires…
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This post resonated with me today as I read it over lunch. A fitting reminder for the Advent season from one of my favorite deepening grounds: Wendell Berry! Remembering that it happened once. A Sabbath poem by Wendell Berry. Remembering that it happened once | Wendell Berry (Sabbath Poems 1987:VI)
the deepening ground 