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, “The Peace of Wild Things” from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. Published and reprinted by arrangement with Counterpoint Press.
Source: Collected Poems 1957-1982 (Counterpoint Press, 1985)
I followed the wise words of Wendell Berry and went to Pauatahanui today.
By the Inlet I found a Heron feeding….
And not a wood drake but a solitary Black Swan.
The Wild Things were calm and untaxed.
The water still and beautiful.
It was easy to breathe and calm and feel restored.
ordinarygoodness 
It’s a beautiful poem, that one. Good you could walk through the poem in your own way.
I have been waiting to share this poem on my blog and today the elements aligned nicely in some respite time.
Beautiful …
Thank you
Thank you for sharing that beautiful poem…
I love this poem. I read it a while back on someone else’s blog, amongst the comments.It has relevance to me. I have been waiting to share it with some appropriate images.
…and the lovely images
Thank you. It was a pleasant outing today.
What beautiful peaceful images Lynley. I especially love the heron. The poem leads into the images just perfectly. Thank you for this serenity.
Thank you Juliet. I thought of you as I watched the heron and how you watch them near your home. They are so measured and serene.
How beautiful, Lyn. This brought tears to my eyes. Such wise words, and we all need that calm and stillness sometimes – the thing is that we forget we need it.
It is the most beautiful poem Jo. I have a similar response to it. We do so need those reminders.