We say goodbye to National Poetry Month (April) and welcome (finally) some sunny weather to the Pacific Northwest!
I was looking for a poem that would reflect the love I have for the arrival of Spring, and with it those surprise moments when the beauty of the natural world balances out the reality of everyday life. I think this one suits the occasion perfectly.
Wendell Berry
(1934 – )
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.
