What might the heart and mind know when we finally rest?
Wendell Berry will be ninety this year. What an amazing guy. You should read A Letter to Wendell Berry by Wallace Stegner. It reveals two gifted men, depth of friendship, joys of life that call us higher and make us feel the sweet pain of tasting the best and knowing there is even more and better. There are secrets to seeing and being thus.
Wendell comes to mind today because for some decades now he has written poems on Sunday. This hints at how much can be done with regular effort over time. He writes more than he can use and he doesn't use a laptop to enhance quantity. His life-long habit is to write long-hand and then his wife, Tanya, types it out for him.
I would wish for such a record. It would grow a writer, though few will be in league with Berry. I began with a stretch for free verse because I like the idea of Sunday poems. Weekly Sabbath is a gift and discipline. Who needs it? All of us do, and very much. What might the heart and mind know when we finally rest?
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| Wendell Berry |
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