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. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry
Submitted by:
Arun Rachamadugu who says “I find myself revisiting this poem when I’m overwhelmed or underwhelmed with everything that’s going on.”Postscript:
This poem snuck up on me, with its conversational beginning that builds into these lovely images of nature, beauty, and peace and culminates in grace. The lines that entirely took my breath away were “I feel above me the day-blind stars/waiting with their light.”
You can read more about Wendell Berry here.
Tagged: imagery, mystic, nature, Wendell Berry, worry