Wendell Berry: "How To Be a Poet"

"How To Be a Poet"

By Wendell Berry 

(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.



Comments

[jeanne]

i am so delighted with your Site.
Every time I check in, my heart seems to open a bit more.
First with Knowing
Sarhenaruc in my bones,
then with words of grace and pictures with perspectives
that embrace me.
thank you.

[Chris]

Dear Jeanne,

I always feel so grateful for you. I still can't quite imagine how it happened — that I'd be given a friend like you to teach me how to be here. And now, no matter what I'm doing, I think of you and feel you nearby. This place knows you in its bones in the same way you know it. And that won't change.

Much love,
Chris