Sabbaths

I don't have much time to write reviews these days, but this book deserves at least a short one.

The book is extraordinary; it gains in depth and loveliness section by section as it goes. Berry has lived his life unconventionally, and this book feels like the fruit of that labor of integrity and wholeness. The forest is to him a blessing and so is his work, the people, and the land. Reading these poems, it's hard to imagine otherwise; the atmosphere they create is so powerful, the awareness of the living grace around them.

The attitude is quiet, musing, and contemplative but never hesitant. These poems know what they are and what they see. They see the both the darkness and the light. They feel loss, but they feel it with grace. There's show more no hint of pettiness in them anywhere.

It's a slender book, but I feel blessed by the gift of it. I see that Berry wrote several poetry books over the years with "Sabbaths" in the title, and I look forward to reading more of them. show less

Mr. Berry's attention has often been turned toward contemplation of the individual's place within a community and the necessity for understanding the interdependence of all things; sabbaths, too, shares these concerns. Just as each individual makes up a vital portion of the community's hole, so these solitary celebrations connect themselves to the world from which they arose, gently and eloquently urging the reader to question his own place and time. Mr. Berry's poems, the Christian Science Monitor has written, "shine with gentle wisdom of the craftsman who has thought deeply about the paradoxical strangeness and wonder of his life," and the work collected in Sabbaths exemplifies such grace.

The pasture, bleached and cold two weeks ago,
Begins to grow in the spring light and rain;
The new grass trembles under the wind's flow.
The flock, barn-weary, comes to it again,
New to the lambs, a place their mothers know,
Welcoming, bright, and savory in its green,
So fully does the time recover it.
Nibbles of pleasure go all over it.

There was a PBS documentary about Berry a few weeks back. It touched me. I have read his essays and bought novels for my mom. I hadn't yet strayed into his verse.

It has been a trying week, it isn't just a job when completely vulnerable/fragile people are concerned. I found myself arriving at work each morning before seven and watering our garden. Under morning clouds and fueled by breeze my thoughts were show more sweetened by the Kentucky poet.

I read this entire collection in one sitting this morning and despite not having a religious bone in my body I can say I feel duly blessed. show less

I read one of these poems every Sunday until I finished the book. They are marvelous, contemplative, close observations, truly Sabbath prayers.