Day 60 of Year 2 (Actually Day 61)
I've been traveling the past week or so bringing my son back to college and now I'm happily home. It's challenging to print on the road but also very satisfying. I made today's print this morning because I wasn't sure what time we'd arrive home tonight. It felt strange to do that a good 12 hours earlier than normal, like my rhythm was disrupted. I think there is something important to my process in waiting about 24 hours to make each print. It allows time for things to cook internally. I think it effects the outcome. Now that I've done a morning print, I think I will switch to mornings for a while and see if the time of day effects things as much as the waiting period. xo
How to Be a Poet
By Wendell Berry (To remind myself)
i
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. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.
ii
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned 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
and desecrated places.
iii
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.
From Given Poems https://amzn.to/2Lqg116
This one I found on https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2015/11/06/wendell-berry-how-to-be-a-poet/, but I'm ordering the book tonight!