laudable Practice

I am not a poet, nor have I any expertise in poetry. I read poetry, yes, but my tastes are very conventional. I dislike jarring poems. Sharp poems. Poems that delight in discomforting the reader (yes, I know the Mad Farmer would disapprove). I am unembarrassed about reading poetry that brings me to 'pass my time in rest and quietness'. I first read the poetry of Wendell Berry over fifteen years ago, during a time when I was receiving treatment for depression. The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (1998) sat for over a year on my bedside table, dipped into on most days. The poems quietly, gently, slowly over that year aided a recovery of the habits and rhythms, pastimes and routines which bring coherence and provide a basis for gratitude. The words of Wendell Berry are, for me, meditations on the words of the hymn: "let our ordered lives confess the beauty of Thy peace". The years went by. The collections of Wendell Berry poems on my bookshelves increased. Sunday aftern...