How To Be a Poet (to remind myself) by Wendell Berry
Make a place to sit down.Sit down. Be quiet.You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge,skill-more of eachthan you have-inspiration,work, growing older, patience, for patience joins time to eternity. Any readers who like your work, doubt their judgment.
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.
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.
1 comment:
Nice blog. Heard Wendell Berry speak last year. He's much better in print than in person.
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