Sunday, March 19, 2006

inspiration from strange places, part 2

While randomly paging through a compilation book called Earth Prayers this morning, I came across this meditation from Wendell Berry:

At start of spring I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my good luck,
have listened to too much noise,
have been inattentive to wonders,
have lusted after praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.

I guess I'm not the only one who has had a religious experience cleaning the outhouse.

3 comments:

robin andrea said...

What a wondeful meditation. Sounds like the perfect ritual for the beginning of spring. Thank you for posting it. It is quite inspirational.

LauraHinNJ said...

I have that Earth Prayers book also - love to just page through it randomly now and again.

Anonymous said...

I've long had the book myself- quite a bit of wisdom in one small book.

(And I love the photo of your new pup! give her an extra nuzzle for me, she's precious)