The Farmer Wendell Berry and the artist Makoto Fujimura

                                                         
                                                         12th Night by Makoto Fujimura
                                                           ( painted the day after 9/11)

Emma and I are getting ready to drive 3 hours north of here into Virginia for 
the Charlotte Mason Institute Conference. It has a new name and a new location. 

I 've been working on one workshop in particular: Culture Care, featuring the ideas
and voices of Makoto Fujimura and Wendell Berry. It has been rich and nourishing 
to work on my own worldview of the subject. Be Generative. These are two words
Mako uses to explain the need for a transformation of culture. Not a war. 
A care and stewardship so desperately needed especially for the generations to come. 
Poetry Workshop too. Hope those who never have loved poetry will begin to 
rest inside some poems and find poets to listen to. 



Listen to Wendell Berry  read his poem:  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.