How To Be a Poet
(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.
Catherine, at Reading to the Core, is hosting Poetry Friday this week.
5 comments:
Well, Wendell, that's one way to do it, but I'm not sure it's my way! How about you, Carol--truth or aspiration?
Lovely choice, though--thank you!
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.
This just makes me want to cry, for so many reasons, some of which I can explain and others I can't bring myself to.
"Accept what comes from silence". This is lovely Carol. Wendell Berry speaks right to us, doesn't he?
Thanks for the reminder.
Hoping for...planning for more of these conditions.
"...make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came." Yes! Thank you for sharing this today.
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