How to be a Poet (to remind myself)...

by Wendell Berry 

Make a place to sit down. 

Sit down. 

Be quiet. 

You must depend upon 

affection, 

reading, 

knowledge, 

skill...more of each 

than you have...inspiration 

work, 

growing older, 

patience, 

for patience joins time 

to eternity… 

Breathe with unconditional breath 

the unconditioned air. 

Shun electric wire. 

Communicate slowly. 

Live a three-dimensional life; 

stay away from screens... 

Stay away from anything 

that obscures the place it is in. 

There are no unsacred places; 

there are only sacred places 

& desecrated places. 

Accept what comes from silence. 

Make the best you can of it. 

Of the little words that come 

out of the silence, 

like prayers 

prayed back to the one who prays, 

make a poem that does not disturb 

the silence from which it came.