WENDELL BERRY
Wendell Berry (1934 - present and going strong, we hope) holds a special place here at Whistlestop. For years we have enjoyed the experience of customers coming in and asking tentatively if we had any Wendell Berry, to which we answer confidently, "what area of his writings are you seeking? Essays, novels, or poetry?" We stock almost all we can (and we can order what little is missing). Berry is a clear strong voice for remembering your roots, thinking clearly and calmly in times of stress and danger, and living truly in relation to your family, your community, and your conscience. He articulates the philosophical and practical advantages of living locally (know local, eat local, shop local, read global). In our quest to fashion our website to be like our store, we thought it necessary to provide a special place for Wendell Berry.
A Small Porch: Sabbath Poems 2014
A Small Porch: Sabbath Poems 2014
More than thirty-five years ago, when the weather allowed, Wendell Berry began spending his sabbaths outdoors, walking and wandering around familiar territory, seeking a deep intimacy only time could provide. These walks arranged themselves into poems and each year since he has completed a sequence dated by the year of its composition. Last year we collected the lot into a collection, "This Day, the Sabbath Poems 1979-2013."
This new sequence for the following year is one of the richest yet. This group provides a virtual syllabus for all of Mr. Berry s cultural and agricultural work in concentrated form. Many of these poems are drawn from the view from a small porch in the woods, a place of stillness and reflection, a vantage point of the one/life of the forest composed/of uncountable lives in countless/years each life coherent itself within/ the coherence, the great composure, /of all.
A new collection of Wendell Berry poems is always an occasion of joyful celebration and this one is especially so.