As I have written here several times, I admire the writing of Wendell Berry whose work includes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. A poem of his that I particularly like is this one he wrote to another fine poet Hayden Carruth (author of the collection “Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey” among many others). I’ve highlighted some lines that resonate with me.
Dear Hayden, when I read your book I was aching
in head, back, heart, and mind, and aching
with your aches added to my own, and yet for joy
I read on without stopping, made eager
by your true mastery, wit, sorrow, and joy,
each made true by the others. My reading done,
I swear I am feeling better. Here in Port Royal
I take off my hat to you up there in Munnsville
in your great dignity of being necessary. I swear
it appears to me you’re one of the rare fellows
who may finally amount to something. What shall
I say? I greet you at the beginning of a great career?
No. I greet you at the beginning, for we are
either beginning or we are dead. And let us have
no careers, lest one day we be found dead in them.
I greet you at the beginning that you have made
authentically in your art, again and again.
At the time Berry wrote the poem to him in the 1990s, Carruth was over 70, had published more than two dozen collections of poetry, and had served as poetry editor for Harper’s magazine for 11 years in the 70s and 80s. Yet, Berry greets him at “the beginning.” Berry’s salutation to Carruth is wise and instructive, for indeed, “we are either beginning or we are dead.”
Beginning connotes being open to possibility, to growing, to becoming. Or as I wrote in another post, referring to another powerful poem by Berry, becoming is a way to “practice resurrection,” resurrecting ourselves into a future of possibility, irrespective of whether we are 20 or 90, or struggling through the decades between. Carruth exemplified this, struggling for years with mental health problems. Here is a poem he wrote in his 70s:
“The Last Poem in the World”
Would I write it if I could?
You bet your glitzy ass I would.
Berry’s point about careers is astute as well. While many people have a career of distinction that often defines who they are and provides a measure of contentment, a career can also become a restricting burden (cf. my previous post “Work versus job”) that stifles one’s spirit and funnels creativity into a routine and into obligatory expectations, as well. Therefore, as Berry says, “let us have no careers, lest one day we be found dead in them,” or to phrase it another way, lest we come to die and discover that due to preoccupation with a career we “had not lived.” Moreover, beginning anew is not dependent on some success in a career but rather on our own sense of possibility, one that dawns to us each morning.
So, I greet each of you at the beginning you are making, again and again with each new day.