A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997

Mr. Berry that Kentucky philosopher/poet is carrying on with his slow and steady turning. It may seem antithetical to the very being of American hurly-burly, but the agrarian Mr. Berry suggests one's sense of place can be a powerful curative to our collective ills: it can be a comfort to know where we are, to be secure in our pasts, although expectations are likely to outstrip the realities of promise. These quiet poems are a strong antidote to American restlessness these days. Mr. Berry -- who turns 76 this year -- continues to "let hope shrink us to our proper size." The watcher on the shore invites us to stop with him awhile. In a cold season it would do us good to watch and wait for those first spring flowers. Wait and watch, the poet says, there's no hurry: for all we plan, nature will find its own place, too. "A Timbered Choir" echoes the eternal solace of nature against the darker aspects of our more recent human needs and wants. Mr. Berry offered this advice in 1993, a period increasingly looking like "the good old days:" "... one's real duty to the future is to do as you should do now. Make the best choices, do the best work, fulfill your obligations in the best way you can, and work on a scale that's appropriately small. Make plans that are appropriately small. If you do those things, then the future will take care of itself. But if you don't do those things, then you build up a debt against the future, which is what we're doing now."

I can't recall the number of copies of this book that I have purchased. My own autographed copy remains a constant on my bedside table, doggeared, starred, and underlined. It is filled with the lovely, quiet poems of Wendell Berry, a true genius in the crafting of words. These poems, compiled over many years of Sunday walks (thus the Sabbath Poems), harken to the quieter side of life. The inevitable changing of seasons, places, and people. We all need a little space for thinking. Berry reminds us of who we are and why we're here. In a quiet way. Buy this book for yourself. Then order more copies for your friends.

Of himself, Wendell Berry says, "I am an amateur poet, working for the love of the work." My own reading tends not to poetry but to philosophy, physics, exegesis, and related works in which language serves quite differently. And yet, whether reading Aristotle or Wendell Berry, it is inescapable that words are ultimately only allegories for much larger ideas. Perhaps in poetry this fact is embraced and romanced while in philosophic and scientific work it is ever a 'problem' to be rather embroiled in. Well, I am an amateur critic, but if the poetry in this volume is the work of an "amateur poet" I say why bother with "professional" poetry? If in fact there is such a thing, what more could it offer?Berry is a farmer, a tender of fields and flocks and fences. Of course he is also a highly regarded poet; a man of soil and art and meditation. In this collection his recurring themes include: The importance of honest labor and the importance of rest and contemplation, "the standing Sabbath of the woods" as he calls it; the nature and passing of time, the connectedness of ourselves to our histories and of matter to spirit. Recurring metaphors of light falling into darkness and light arising from darkness, of life fading into death and of life arising from death, have both material and spiritual meanings. . ."His passing now has brought him upInto a place not reached by road,Beyond all history that he knows,Where trees like great saints stand in time,Eternal in their patience. LossHas rectified the songs that comeInto this columned room, and heOnly in silence, nothing in hand,Comes here. A generosityIs here by which the fallen stand." (1984, p65)The author invites the reader to consider the verses here a few at a time, in moments of quiet and solitude, of "Sabbath rest," in the same manner in which the verses were created.

This book is a rarity of rarities -- quality poetry from a Christian perspective that any and all can enjoy. Though Berry's faith is evident, it is far from oppressive, and simply adds to the peace and quiet of the poems.Peace and quiet describe them best. Called "Sabbath Poems", they are often the result of a restful walk through the woods, a time of reflection and enjoyment of "the given world". Themes through the book are love of nature (and God through nature), a growing disgust with the modern world, the presence and comfort of death and life, and his love for his wife. Metrically, Berry's poetry is marked by the strength of his individual lines. Sometimes he rhymes; almost always there is an internal, even organic rhythm. As this book spans 1979 -- 1997, it is also interesting to trace the progression of his poetry. His lines grow stronger as his poems grow simpler. And he is less afraid to venture out a bit -- while most of his poems are 15-20 lines unrhymed with internal rhythm, he tries on rhyming patterns, writes one or two line works, and even writes a 13 page praise of the pastoral life. 215 pages long is a good deal longer than most books of poetry that aren't "collections". My favorite poems are towards the end, if you're only going to read a few, read the ones from 1992 on. Poems to quite your soul and spirit. Highly recommended.A sample poem:I go among the trees and sit still.All my stirring becomes quietaround me like circles on water.My tasks lie in their places where I left them, asleep like cattle.Then what is afraid of me comesand lives a while in my sight.What it fears in me leaves me,and the fear of me leaves it.It sings, and I hear its song.Then what I am afraid of comes.I live for a while in its sight.What I fear in it leaves it,And the fear of it leaves me.It sings and I hear its song.After days of labor,mute in my costernations,I hear my song at last,and I sing it. As we sing,The day turns, the trees move.(if you'd like to discuss Berry's poetry, to disagree or agree with me, to recommend a poet I might enjoy, my e-mail is [email protected])

This collection of poems connects Christianity to Nature. It is Berry's answer in Western traditions to the more ecocritical values of Eastern religion and philosophy. Berry's weekly journeys mediate on the mystical journey one embarks on in finding his or her community within the larger web of life on Earth as seasons unfold. With clarity and wisom, this work professes the beauty and reverence for Nature essential to ecology and community which is neglected at the brink of the twenty-first century. Berry's words, his imagery and description, come alive and touch the heart... and impart on us through each poem to beginning healing, and then to act...