Meditation-Introspection &Poetry Entropy | 08 May 2009
How To Be a Poet
Wendell Berry, a master of many literary genres, 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.
How To Be a Poet
(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,
doubt their judgment.
ii
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.
iii
Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.
© By Wendell Berry
on 09 May 2009 at 12:29 pm 1.Nimesh said …
Dear Lao Aju
This is so simple, beautiful and pure… It is a poem without wanting to be one. As the Poet says “There are only sacred places”. Perhaps that reflects in his poem as well.
Nimesh