Welcome back to The Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network. I'm David Kern, and today is Thursday, February 27th, 2020. And the poem that I'm going to read today is by the esteemed poet, Wendell Berry, an American novelist, poet, essayist, activist, critic, farmer, who was born in August of 1934.

You've heard from him on this podcast before and other podcasts that we do,

and you probably know how much I appreciate his work.

And the poem that I'm going to read today is called A Purification.

It goes like this.

At start of spring, I open a trench in the ground.

I put into it the winter's accumulation of paper,

pages I do not want to read again,

useless words, fragments, errors,

and I put into it the contents of the outhouse, light of the sun,

growth of the ground, finished with one of their journeys. To the sky, to the wind then,

and to the faithful trees, I confess my sins, that I have not been happy enough, considering my

good luck,

have listened to too much noise,

have been inattentive to wonders,

have lusted after praise.

And then upon the gathered refuse of mind and body,

I closed the trench,

folding shut again the dark, the deathless earth.

Beneath that seal, the old escapes into the new.

This is a poem that is, of course, great for the beginning of spring.

I like to read poems that are seasonal on here on the podcast, of course.

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