Wendell Berry: gone but not forgotten

Oh, my heart. Wendell Berry died on August 31st. I’m so grateful to know his poetry. This poem, for example:

Before Dark

by Wendell Berry

From the porch at dusk I watched

a kingfisher wild in flight

he could only have made for joy.

 

He came down the river, splashing

against the water’s dimming face

like a skipped rock, passing

 

on down out of sight. And still

I could hear the splashes

farther and farther away

 

as it grew darker. He came back

the same way, dusky as his shadow,

sudden beyond the willows.

 

The splashes went on out of hearing.

It was dark then. Somewhere

the night had accommodated him

 

—at the place he was headed for

or where, led by his delight,

he came.

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