wendell on lilies...

my sweet friend katie is often a source if literary delight to me... feeding my addiction to novels about the rest of this big world... so i went to her before i left for the beach to get some books to last me through the 10 day hiatus.

she sent me off with a compilation of wendell berry poems and i just delighted in them! especially the ones about nature just ran through my head as we kayaked through marshes into open ocean, walked over sand dunes down to kettle ponds, and saw lilies leaning with the bayside wind.

here's one of my favorites...

The Lilies

Hunting them, a man must sweat, bear
the whine of a mosquito in his ear,
grow thirsty, tired, despair perhaps
of ever finding them, walk a long way.
He must give himself over to chance,
for they live beyond prediction.
He must give himself over to patience,
for they live beyond will. He must be led
along the hill as by a prayer.
If he finds them anywhere, he will find
a few, paired on their stalks,
at ease in the air as souls in bliss.
I found them here at first without hunting,
by grace, as all beauties are first found.
I have hunted and not found them here.
Found, unfound, they breathe their light
into the mind, year after year.