A sabbath poem at vacation's close...

My youngest daughter turned me on to Wendell Berry years ago - he is one of her mentors of sorts - and his words continue to bring me a sense of peace. In his collection, A Timbered Choir, Berry shares some of the Sabbath poems he has written since 1979. As the dust jacket notes: "For more than two decades, Wendell Berry has spent his Sunday mornings in a walking meditation, observing the world through his poetry. (This volume) gathers all of these singular works to date, embracing that which is elemental to human life - beauty, death, peace and hope."

That is the vision, seen

As on a Sabbath walk:

The possibility

Of human life whose terms

Are Heaven's and this earth's.

Last night my oldest daughter arrived from NYC by way of an overnight visit with her country sister. She, too, brings gifts and joys into my life but in very different ways from her sister. I thought of them both while reading the first poem in Berry's compilation:

I go among trees and sit still.

All my stirring becomes quiet

around me like circles on water.

My tasks lie in their places

where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes

and lives a while in my sight.

What it fears in me leaves me,

and the fear of me leaves it.

It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.

I live for a while in its sight.

What I fear in it leaves it,

and the fear of it leaves me.

It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,

mute in my consternations,

I hear my song at last,

and I sing it. As we sing,

the day turns, the trees move.

As this year's vacation time comes to a close, I rejoice in the blessings... and now we're off to see the Degas/Picasso exhibit.