Wendell Berry is the author of more than 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. For more than 50 years he has lived and farmed with his wife, Tanya, in Kentucky. This delightful collection of poems was written many years ago and it contains some wonderful wood engravings by Wesley Bates. In the introduction, James Baker Hall sets the stage for our perusal of these lyrical observations on the turn of the seasons, the beauties and the bounties of the natural world, and the shadows brought on by the Vietnam War. The poems were birthed while Berry looked out of the multi-paned window of his writing studio which he called "The Long-Legged House."
As we read these startling, elegant, and revelatory poems, we thought of our own window on the world which provides our perch for viewing the city of New York. In a poem called "Window. Window." Berry writes: "Look in/ and see him looking out./ He is not always/ quiet, but there have been times/ when happiness has come/ to him, unasked." The poet imagines that the hill is the ancestor of "He" who is looking out, and the river that "He" sees is a sacred text.
There are moments when Berry pays tribute to the wild which lies beyond and there are times when he savors the comfort and security of the "sheltering and clear" window when it is pouring outside. It is in this spirit that he writes: "How fine/to sweep the floor,/opening the doors/ to let the air change,/ and then to sit down/ in the freshened room/ day pouring in the window." Berry is a master teacher of everyday spirituality whether writing about the sacred meaning of place, the lessons we can learn from animals, or the pleasures of taking loving and long looks at the natural world.
Berry does not allow his reverence for the earth to obliterate his rage against the folly of humankind and especially against the American government, which wants "to help everybody/ even if it has to kill them/ to do it." He dreams of peace and writes: "Let men, who cannot be brothers/ to themselves, be brothers/ to mulleins and daisies / that have learned to live on earth."
