Wendell Berry, a truly wise man, died at age 92 on August 26. Let’s let him speak for himself on the topic of death right off. The following 4 part poem is from his book The Country of Marriage: Testament 1. Dear relatives and friends, when my last breath Grows large and free in air, don’t call it death — A word to enrich the undertaker and inspire His surly art of imitating life; conspire Against him. Say that my body cannot now Be improved upon; it has no fault to show To t

Wendell Berry: An Invitation Into Seeing The Peace of Wild Things When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars wait