Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Studying up on Wendell Berry


I've read alot of Berry and he's one
writer who is all over the library and
a bookstore. Essays, poems, environmental
issues, fiction, even a children's book.
I love Whitefoot which is about a mouse.
I've been listening to this farmer poet
online , hearing his Kentucky drawl and
learning about his work. I love this:
He carries a notebook and a pencil when
musical words hit him. The mind then
has to make those lyrical phrases potent
to become a poem.

Like Snow
    • Suppose we did our work

    • like the snow, quietly, quietly,

    • leaving nothing out.

3 comments:

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

That simple, 3-line poem is amazingly powerful in the images and feelings it brings...he is certainly one of a kind and a special writer. I loved Hannah Coulter and his short stories in Fidelity. I tried to read a book of his environmental essays but found it hard going, though his wonderful descriptions were certainly bright spots within those essays.

Bonnie said...

Thanks Sara!
I agree. I have to think upon his essays more. You have been encouraging!

From the Kitchen said...

For me, Berry's "In the Presence of Fear" was a help after September 11, 2001.