Friday, April 23, 2010

Friday with an old friend....


I got out my collection of poems from Wendell Berry through the years of 1957 to 1982. Wendell is a writer with great clarity and sureness. He has a love for language and a dedication to the beauty in the land of Kentucky, family and community, tradition as a life work. He lived in Henry county in his ancestral home on the Kentucky River... a dedicated man who left a successful New York literary life to return home to Kentucky to write his authentic observations of life in a simpler time. I had him for my professor during the Vietnam war and we were listened to...without questioning our motives... with an open heart when I dared to ask questions that seem to threaten what our values were and where were we going in a time of turmoil. He spoke to us about thinking responsibly, maintaining our individuality and dared us to live an authentic life in the Arts. I should try to contact him now...he made a very strong impact on my way of thinking and looking at the world...then and even more now.

A Homecoming

One faith is bondage.
Two are free.
In the trust of old love,
cultivation shows a dark graceful wilderness at its heart.
Wild in that wilderness,
we roam the distances of our faith,
safe beyond the bounds of what we know.
O love, open.
Show me my country.
Take me home.

I feel that I was so blessed to have been able to be in his class...maybe even all the years later I reach out for his grace in written words. Thank You Wendell. Imagine and Live in Peace,
Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

3 comments:

  1. Lovely poem. Many of us try to live an authentic life, but sometimes, life gets in the way!! LOL Presently, I'm living it one day at a time, sometimes, moment to moment, but seeing as much joy and hilarity as possible. I watch my little Chihuahuas and wonder why my walking through the front door makes them so incredibly happy or how they love to cuddle, finally, at the end of the day with my husband and me. So simple, so sweet, and with much love. I should be more like them! However, I don't think I am willing to dance for my dinner!! LOL

    Have a wonderful weekend and take care.

    xxoo,
    Georgina

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  2. You were and thank you so much for sharing a little of him with us. :)Bea

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  3. Georgina you make me laugh out loud and yes I can see those darling little chihuahuas dancing to greet your arrival home...we should dance with them...think of the exercise :O)!!! Husbands and cuddling are very healing. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

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