The Peace of Wild Things

The Peace of Wild Things 2016-05-31T11:42:41-05:00

Male Wood Drake

A male Wood Duck at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, Portland, Oregan, USA. Wiki Commons

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


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