new poet

As I wandered through B&N the other day, I came across a new poet named Wendell Berry.  He's new to me, I should say.  I purchased his book, A Timbered Choir.  This poem is taken from that work.

Whatever is foreseen in joy

Must be lived out from day to day.

Vision held open in the dark

By our ten thousand days of work.

Harvest will fill out the barn; for that

The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled

By work of ours; the field is tilled

And left to grace.  That we may reap,

Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood

Rests on our day, and finds it good.

Beautiful words

I hope someday to be able to use words with the skill of these poets.

For one human being to love another is perhaps the most difficult task of all, the epitome, the ultimate test.  It is that striving for which all other striving is merely preparation.

-Rainer Maria Rilke.

~~~~

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain. 

-Emily Dickinson

~~~~

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

-William Blake

Dickinson

I never saw a moor, 

I never saw the sea; 

Yet know I how the heather looks, 

And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God, 

Nor visited in heaven;

Yet certain am I of the spot,

As if the chart was given.

-Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowances for your doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph or disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build them up with wornout tools;

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk it one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone.
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on",

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings-- nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run--
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--You'll be a man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

I memorized this poem in second or third grade, and I came across in a book the other day. Its interesting to read it again and see what I agree with and what I disagree with. However, I thought he should have directed it to a daughter instead!