Poem for Monday

I spent my Easter alone. A day without planned menus, no cooking, cleaning, family visits, and no devices. I spent a good part of it in the backyard with my chickens listening to their distant cousins in the trees. It was a present easier for Paul and our families to give me than one for me to accept for myself. Why do I struggle so much with the idea that being a alone is selfish?  I'm always looking for advice to live life as an artist. Here is a beauty that worked wonders for me this weekend.


How to be a Poet
(to remind myself)
-Wendell Berry
1.
Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.
2.
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.
3.
Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

What I look forward to every year. Photos by Paul Clancy