Two from Wendell Berry

With the continuation of peaceful acceptance it is enlightening to turn to a great American writer, and a Kentucky gentleman farmer - Wendell Berry. Turning to nature, as Whitman did, and Frost also - is an ever present and easily accessible source of comfort. As Wendell Berry writes, echoing Whitman, "I come into the peace of wild things / who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief." The simplicity and presence of solace is near: "What we need is here." No need to look any further than out your window.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

--Wendell Berry

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.

--Wendell Berry