How To Be a Poet (to remind myself) by Wendell Berry

   How To Be a Poet   

by Wendell Berry

Make a place to sit down.

Sit down. Be quiet.

You must depend upon

affection, reading, knowledge,

skill—more of each

than you have—inspiration,

work, growing older, patience,

for patience joins time

to eternity. Any readers

who like your poems,

doubt their judgment.

ii

 

Breathe with unconditional breath

the unconditioned air.

Shun electric wire.

Communicate slowly. Live

a three-dimensioned life;

stay away from screens.

Stay away from anything

that obscures the place it is in.

There are no unsacred places;

there are only sacred places

and desecrated places.

iii

 

Accept what comes from silence.

Make the best you can of it.

Of the little words that come

out of the silence, like prayers

prayed back to the one who prays,

make a poem that does not disturb

the silence from which it came.

 

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by Hanna L.

Comments

[Keri Rodriguez]

i'm having a hard time reading "How To Be a Poet" its font color is very much to lite... i would love to know what it reads. i find writing is a great tool to release my deep emotions and im always searching for ways to improve upon it. please tell me if you have this printed in a darker color font that i may be able to read. Thank You, Keri

[Isabella]

sorry about that. I recently changed the theme from a dark background to a white one...I haven't gone through and fixed all the text that is in light colors yet. I fixed this one, but if there are others, all you have to do is select the text like you were going to copy it and it will show up...My blog has been inactive for awhile, but I am working on some new material and hope to start publishing posts on a regular basis again

Isabella