Wendell Berry (b.1934)
The Wish to Be Generous
All that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man's evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.
Poet, essayist, farmer, and novelist Wendell Berry was born on August 5, 1934 in Newcastle, Kentucky. He attended the University of Kentucky at Lexington and is the author of more than thirty books of poetry, essays, and novels. Among his honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, a Lannan Foundation Award, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives on a farm in Port Royal, Kentucky.
Selected by Amy Frykholm: amy@journeywithjesus.net
