Walking with Wendell Berry's Poetry
Niggly words and a way to work with them
This morning Diana Butler Bass, who writes one of my favorite substack newsletters, The Cottage, shared the following poem by Wendell Berry. Inspiration for tonight's newsletter was slow in coming this week, but then I read Berry’s poem, and so many lines rippled with resonance, recognition, and invitation. I wondered what would happen if I let the poem lead and listened with humility. (Read on to see how it went…)
“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.”
~Wendell Berry
I found five lines that held something extra, caught my attention, and caused me to pause a beat longer and see what they held when I put those lines together.
My five lines are:
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts…
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
These lines from Berry’s poem seem to encapsulate a longing for understanding, kindness, and joyful vitality and perhaps a reminder that the world doesn’t need my approval and facts as much as I like to think it does.
I’m letting these five lines provoke, challenge and inform me.
What if I did something-every day that doesn’t compute? This feels scandalous and gleeful. Doesn’t Berry know adults have things to do and lists to accomplish? Yet, I can think of a few times last week when I did something that, on the surface, didn’t compute, the world didn’t fall apart, and it was kind of fun!
What if I gave my approval instead of trying to understand, manage and correct? Or even more scandalous, I began to know that the world doesn’t hinge (at all) on my approval or disapproval. This feels like an elegant invitation to stand down and trust. What does my approval or disapproval do or prove–really?
What if I praised ignorance? This honestly is the hardest line to even consider-it runs counter to it feels like everything! But that second part- what we haven’t encountered, we haven’t destroyed…there is some wisdom. I don’t know how to hold this idea, but I don’t want to gloss over it.
What if I could be joyful even when I have considered all the facts? This feels hard, scandalous, and another invitation to grace. It feels like Berry is saying that a joyful stance isn’t dependent on knowing all the facts and my approval. (Wait, that can’t be right….)
What if I could be like the fox and make more tracks than necessary, even in the wrong direction? Yet another invitation to stand down and let that joyful attitude lead in the face of facts that I approve of and even ignorance!
I’ve let Wendell Berry’s poem take some space in my head and heart this afternoon, and it seems like it’s not ready to let me move on quite yet. Maybe you will join me and invite Wendell Berry’s words to find some space in your head and heart this week.
Here’s the invitation:
Read the poem several times. (Read it one time aloud so you can hear the words-I was surprised at what I heard when I spoke the words. There was a line that I heard for the first time!)
What five lines stand out to you?
Write them down together.
What do you notice?
Is there an invitation?
Is there a pattern?
What do those five lines hold in common that provoke, invite, and give you pause
Can you turn each phrase into a blessing…
My blessings from those niggly, challenging words…
May we do something every day that doesn’t compute, add up, or conform to the rules-real or imagined that we try to make our days conform to.
May we be willing to give approval, even to the things, ideas, and people we don’t understand. May the equation not be understanding equals approval, but a more expansive, gracious, graceful, and loving equation.
May we remember that what is hidden and unseen is also unbroken and whole. May ignorance invite praise and exploration rather than judgment and destruction.
May we be joyful because of the facts we don’t understand and because of what doesn’t compute. May we dance into the mystery grace.
May we be like the fox who bounds, leaps, smells, and wanders because she can. May our tracks be abundant and filled with laughter, grace, kindness, and joyful love.
