Poets

Poet Wendell Berry on life, marriage, and justice

POSTED AUGUST 19, 2019

Once upon a time, the arts, science and philosophy were practiced as a unity to gain insight into the universe. The "natural philosophers" of the Greek Awakening and Golden Age looked at all the aspects of the world to determine, among other things, the right way to live and "natural law". Today, specialization - particularly in the sciences - has moved us beyond the point where any one individual can hope to be well versed in everything. Still, cosmologists' findings on the beginning and end of the universe have wonderful philosophical implications. Neuroscience grapples with the nature of consciousness; psychology, with free will and human potential. In a similar way, from the opposite end of the knowledge/wisdom spectrum, poets can give us insights into the life well-lived.

One of these poets is Wendell Berry, whom Wikipedia identifies as "an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer." These selections from two of his poems and an essay give insight into the reflective life, explore parallels between poetry and marriage, and challenge our "gradual self-permission."

His poem "How to be a Poet (to remind myself)" opens with lines that could well be read as how to live a fulfilling and meaningful life [sidebar] and also includes this advice: "Live a three-dimensioned life...Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in. There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places."

In a 1982 essay titled “Poetry and Marriage: The Use of Old Forms,” Berry explores the unexpected but profound parallels between poetry and marriage through the lens of form as both a hedge against and an embracing of the unknown:

The meaning of marriage begins in the giving of words. We cannot join ourselves to one another without giving our word. And this must be an unconditional giving, for in joining ourselves to one another we join ourselves to the unknown. We can join one another only by joining the unknown. We must not be misled by the procedures of experimental thought: in life, in the world, we are never given two known results to choose between, but only one result that we choose without knowing what it is...In marriage as in poetry, the given word implies the acceptance of a form that is never entirely of one’s own making.

He adds:

The second aspect of these forms is an opening, a generosity, toward possibility. The forms acknowledge that good is possible; they hope for it, await it, and prepare its welcome — though they dare not require it. These two aspects are inseparable. To forsake the way is to forsake the possibility. To give up the form is to abandon the hope.

In his poem "Questionnaire" [sidebar - link to "Brain Pickings" post], Wendell Berry poses conscience-challenging questions as to how far we would go in the name of patriotism and the flag, the free market and global trade, security, goodness, culture...to endure or commit desecrations and atrocities.