Sabbaths

Excerpts from Leavings by Wendell Berry:

Sabbaths 2005

XIII.

Eternity is not infinity.
It is not a long time.
It does not run parallel to time.
In its entirety it always was.
In its entirety it will always be.

It is entirely present always.

Sabbaths 2008

V.

How many of your birthdays
I have by now been
glad of! And all that time
I’ve been trying to tell you
how with you was born
my truest life and most
desired, the better man
by your birth I am, however
fallen short. I’ll never
get it right by half.
Between us now, what
is more telling than the silence
in which once more an old
redbud simply blooms?

Sabbaths 2008

IX.

…

plants, animals, humans,
soils, stones, stories,
songs—all belonging
to such small, once known
and forgotten, officially unknown
and exploited, beautiful places
such as this, where despite
all we have done wrong
the golden light of October
falls through the turning leaves.

…