Dickey, James - Porkopolis. United States, (1923-1997) A moment tries to come inThrough the windows, when one must goBeyond what there is in the room,But it must come straight down.Lord, it is time,And I must get up and startTo circle through my father’s empty houseLooking for things to put onOr to strip myself ofSo that I can fall to my kneesAnd produce a word I can’t sayUntil all my reason is slain.Here is the gray sweaterMy father wore in the cold,The snapped threads growing all over itLike his gray body hair.The spurs of his gamecocks glimmerAlso, in my light, dry hand.And here is the head of a boarI once helped to kill with two arrows:Two things of my father’sWild, Bible-reading lifeAnd my own best and stillest momentIn a hog’s head waiting for glory.All these I set up in the attic,The boar’s head, gaffs, and the sweaterOn a chair, and gaze in the darkUp into the boar’s painted gullet.Nothing.
. © James DickeyPoems 1957-1967. Wesleyan University Press, 1967. Poetry by Mary Oliver- The Journey, Wild Geese, Morning Poem and Others. The Journey One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice-- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
"Mend my life! " each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn. The Winter of Listening by David Whyte - zena musings. Purchase Downloads. Self Portrait. Wendell Berry. Dan Carraco Critics and scholars have acknowledged Wendell Berry as a master of many literary genres, but whether he is writing poetry, fiction, or essays, his message is essentially the same: humans must learn to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth or perish.
The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, which analyzes the many failures of modern, mechanized life, is one of the key texts of the environmental movement, but Berry, a political maverick, has criticized environmentalists as well as those involved with big businesses and land development. In his opinion, many environmentalists place too much emphasis on wild lands without acknowledging the importance of agriculture to our society. Berry strongly believes that small-scale farming is essential to healthy local economies, and that strong local economies are essential to the survival of the species and the well-being of the planet. Berry's themes are reflected in his life. 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’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Buy or borrow this book: Source: Collected Poems 1957-1982 (Counterpoint Press, 1985) Biography Critics and scholars have acknowledged Wendell Berry as a master of many literary genres, but whether he is writing poetry, fiction, or essays, his message is essentially the same: humans must learn to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth or perish.
Continue reading this biography. How To Be a Poet by Wendell Berry.