The Peace of Wild Things

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

from New Collected Poems (Counterpoint, 2012)

Chosen by Gary
At this time of great uncertainty, fear and apprehensioon about the future this gentle and elegant poemm by Wendell Berry remind us of the bigger story of nature, life, and the grace of stillness. It’s a poem which reaches out beyond the page and speaks to the heart.

Copyright (c) 2012 by Wendell Berry, reproduced by permission of Counterpoint