Farming: A Hand Book

by Wendell Berry

Overview

The sanity and eloquence of these poems spring from the land in Kentucky where Wendell Berry was born, married, lives, farms, and writes. From classic pastoral themes both lyrical and reflective, to a verse play, to a dramatic narrative and the manic, entertaining, prescient ravings of Berry’s Mad Farmer, these poems show a unity of language and consciousness, skill and sensitivity, that has placed Wendell Berry at the front rank of contemporary American poets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781582437637
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	09/20/2011
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Wendell Berry is the author of fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He was recently awarded the Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Louis Bromfield Society Award. For over forty years he has lived and farmed with his wife, Tanya, in Kentucky.

Table of Contents

I
	The Man Born to Farming	3
	The Stones	4
	The Supplanting	5
	Sowing	6
	The Familiar	7
	The Farmer among the Tombs	8
	For the Rebuilding of a House	9
	The Springs	10
	Water	11
	Rain	12
	Sleep	13
	To Know the Dark	14
	Winter Night Poem for Mary	15
	Winter Nightfall	16
	February 2, 1968	17
	March 22, 1968	18
	The Morning's News	19
	Enriching the Earth	21
	A Wet Time	22
	The Silence	23
	In This World	24
	The New Roof	25
	A Praise	26
	On the Hill Late at Night	27
	The Barn	28
	The Buildings	29
	The Seeds	30
	The Wish to Be Generous	31
	Air and Fire	32
	The Lilies	33
	Independence Day	34
II
	A Standing Ground	37
	Song in a Year of Catastrophe	38
	The Current	41
	The Mad Farmer Revolution	42
	The Contrariness of the Mad Farmer	44
	The Farmer and the Sea	46
	Earth and Fire	47
	The Mad Farmer in the City	48
	The Birth (Near Port William)	50
	Awake at Night	55
	Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer	56
	The Satisfactions of the Mad Farmer	60
III
	The Bringer of Water	66
IV
	A Letter	101
	Meditation in the Spring Rain	105
	A Failure	108
	The Grandmother	109
	The Illumination of the Kentucky Mountain Craftsman	110
	The Wages of History	111
	The Heron	113
	September 2, 1969	115
	The Farmer, Speaking of Monuments	116
	The Sorrel Filly	117
	To the Unseeable Animal	118