Since we discovered the remarkable effects of reading a poem every morning several years ago, we’ve looked for ways to weave poetry more widely into our life.
We love being read poetry but find that many reader’s voices detract from the poem, while only some make it soar. We found two beauties from Poetry Films, an ongoing series of animated poems by The On Being Project. The first is a mighty, comforting wakeup by the great Wendell Berry, from 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.
Which led us to discovering Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama:
We found ourselves wanting to hear more poems read by THAT marvelous voice and discovered it at the Poetry Unbound podcast where Ó Tuama reads poems and then talks about them in a way that is itself like poetry. We find it throws essential whammies into our linear way of thinking, and helps us access more artful territory. You can listen online here and/or download the podcast to listen anywhere, anytime, or share them… Perfect.
And there is a trove of poems read by the great Wendell Berry here.
His sublime poem How to Be A Poet is really about How to Be a Human Being.
Related Posts
