'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

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Tuesday, 15 July 2008

Poem


"THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS"


by Wendell Berry and adapted for New Zealand by me.


When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down in my kayak where the pukeko

rests in his blue beauty in the wetlands, and the kingfisher 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 for their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

3 comments:

  1. Only slighly altered from the original. That's a nice and relevant thing to do. I had never seen this salutary poem before. Somehow it reminds me of "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by W.B.Yeats - about having time out - finding a different and more simple reality.

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  2. ...I will arise and go now....
    Thanks for commenting YP. Yes, 'a more simple reality'. That's exactly what I'm looking for. Couldn't have put it better myself.

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  3. Hi, Katherine,

    That's one of my favorite poems.

    Like you, I find kayaking a wonderful way to be out in the wonders of the natural world.

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