Wendell Berry: "The Want of Peace"

All goes back to the earth,
and so I do not desire
pride of excess or power,
but the contentments made
by men who have had little:
the fisherman's silence
receiving the river's grace,
the gardner's musing on rows.

I lack the peace of simple things.
I am never wholly in place.
I find no peace or grace.
We sell the world to buy fire,
our way lighted by burning men,
and that has bent my mind
and made me think of darkness
and wish for the dumb life of roots.



"The Want of Peace" by Wendell Berry. Text as published in New Collected Poems (Counterpoint Press, 2012).

Curator's note: The word "gardner's" in the last line of the first stanza is as spelled in the text.

Art credit: "Fly fishing," photograph taken in Yellowstone National Park [USA] by Ranch Seeker.