“…a mix of ancient chords…” (a poem about nature)

Richard Subber
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

The art of Wendell Berry

Stoned

I have discovered the poetry of Wendell Berry. If you like your poetry straight from the shoulder, wholesomely explicit, in a love affair with nature, and expressly literate, borrow one of his books and take a look.

Here’s a taste:

“I owned a slope full of stones.

Like buried pianos they lay in the ground…

an old music mute in them…

I broke them…and lifted them in pieces.

As I piled them in the light

I began their music…

The stones have given me music…

They have taught me the weariness that loves the ground…”

From “The Stones” in New Collected Poems by Wendell Berry

I step right into the breach here. I suppose stones have distinct personae, each one unique, durable, resisting almost every change except a change of place — and that’s good guidance for all of us, most days….

Cleave to your loves and your plans and your special pleasures and your sense of the right things, but don’t miss an opportunity to go to a new place and find out how you can be you there.

With manifest inspiration from Mr. Berry, here’s my poem — a love affair with nature — about the music of the stones:

click here

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Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2017 All rights reserved.

My first book of poems, Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 new poems, is for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), or free in Kindle Unlimited, click here

On this website you can read: my poetry in free verse and 5–7–5 format — nature poems, love poems, poems about grandchildren, and a spectrum of other topics — written in a way that makes it possible for you to know, as precisely as possible, what’s going on in my mind and in my imagination; thoughtful book reviews that offer some exceptional critique of the book instead of a simple book summary; examinations of history that did and didn’t happen; examples of my love affair with words; reflections on the quotations, art, and wisdom of famous and not-so-famous people, and occasional comments on politics and human nature.

Your comments on my poems, book reviews and other posts are welcome.

Here’s my book review

for an old favorite, Moby-Dick

click here

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← The wisdom of W. H. Auden


Originally published at Richard Subber.

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Richard Subber

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I am a poet, a thinker. My two poetry books, Writing Rainbows and Seeing far, available on Amazon. Check my website: http://richardsubber.com/

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