Wendell Berry: Window, Window

Window, Window

 

13.

 

Sometimes he thinks the earth
might be better without humans.
He's ashamed of that.
It worries him,
him being a human, and needing
to think well of others
in order to think well of himself.
And there are
a few he thinks well of,
a few he loves
as well as himself almost,
and he would like to say
better.  But history
is so largely unforgivable.
And now his might government
wants to help everybody
even if it has to kill them
to do it - like the fellow in the story
who helped his neighbor to Heaven:
'I heard the Lord calling him,
Judge, and I sent him on.'
According to the government
everybody is just waiting
to be given a chance
to be like us.  He can't
go along with that.

 

Here is a thing, flesh of his flesh,
that he hates.  He would like
a little assurance
that no one will destroy the world
for some good cause.
Until he dies, he would like his life
to pertain to the earth.
But there is something in him
that will wait, even
while he protests,
for things turn out as they will.
Out his window this morning
he saw nine ducks in flight,
and a hawk dive at his mate
in delight.
The day stands apart
from the calendar.  There is a will
that receives it as enough.
He is given a fragment of time
in this fragment of the world.
He likes it pretty well.

 

~ Wendell Berry ~

 

(Window Poems)

 

 

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