Poetry Thursday - Wendell Barry

Impeded stream? - or, closed sky?
(Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror in Hyde Park, 2010)

The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

- Wendell Berry 

 (Found at lizdavidsonartist.blogspot.com)

 Wendell Berry - born in Kentucky in 1934 - is described at http://www.poemhunter.com/wendell-berry/biography as "an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays. He is also an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and a recipient of The National Humanities Medal."

Here's another of his short poems -

 What We Need Is Here 

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.