Poems in Praise of Wilderness and Grace

I came across this poem by Wendell Berry in the online Whiskey River Commonplace Book.


The Peace of Wild Things


When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.


—Wendell Berry

I found this poem by Mary Oliver in the Parabola Magazine.

April


I wanted to speak at length about

the happiness of my body and the

delight of my mind for it was

April, night, a

full moon and—

but something in myself or maybe

from somewhere other said: not too

many words, please, in the

muddy shallows the

frogs are singing.

—Mary Oliver