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
waiting with their light.
For a time, I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.
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~ Poem by Wendell Berry
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4 Comments
(Yes, I know that’s a Northern Shoveller and not a wood drake. I didn’t want to have to change the poem and I only have one picture that I’ve taken of a wood duck, and I didn’t want to recycle it as it didn’t really seem to fit this post.)
“Yes, I know that’s a Northern Shoveller and not a wood drake. I didn’t want to have to change the poem and I only have one picture that I’ve taken of a wood duck, and I didn’t want to recycle it as it didn’t really seem to fit this post.”
a likely story…
A number of beautiful shots, though I especially like the … brightly-colored finch-looking critters on the mound of grass :)
The brightly-colored critters on the mound of grass are yellow-headed blackbirds. :-)
All the bird names are on the Flickr pics–click on ‘em and then go to “Back to the Flickr photo page” and it’ll show you the names. :-)