Requiem for a Mad Farmer

RIP Wendell Berry. A select writer with his own tag on this blog, he was a rare triple threat in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. I love his novels Hannah Coulter and Jayber Crow as much as Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition, his advocacy for the preservation of tangibility, his documentary, and his many poems—like “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” and “A Homecoming”, which we had read during our wedding ceremony: One faith is bondage. Two are free.In the trust of old love,cultivation shows a darkgraceful wilderness at its heart.Wild in that wilderness, we roamthe distances of our faith,safe beyond the bounds of what we know.O love, open.Show me my country.Take me home. Do yourself a favor and dive into any of it.