The dilemma of choice was upon me yesterday. I was trying to find the very poem to live this week, the very poem to be my inspiration, information, soul-stirrer, walking companion.....
Bringing a poem into my life is no small thing, I am a demanding reader. I skimmed first lines, second lines, last lines, looking for the right feel. But nothing seemed to click.
There is something about abundance. Too much choice, and my mind starts spinning. At times I wish there was just the One. The One opinion. The One right way of doing things. The One Poem.
Yet if anyone would offer me that One and Only, I would run for my life.
Still. She who seeks, shall find.
Suddenly my mind went quiet, the spinning stopped. I was out among trees, and all my stirring became quiet.
I Go Among Trees and Sit Still
by Wendell Berry
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.
After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.
From A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997
