Gone Fishing #1

Posted on by Harlon

I am taking a bit of time off for myself and taking this opportunity to connect to the words of others that inspire me.

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1979:  I

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.

 

Wendell Berry, A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997. Washington: Counterpoint, 1998.

 

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