Wendell Berry's "How to Be a Poet"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2020

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

Today's poem is Wendell Berry's "How to Be a Poet," another poem in the ars poetica tradition.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to The Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
0:05.6	Today's poem is by an American poet, Wendell Berry. You've heard from him before on this podcast.
0:10.3	He was born in August of 1934, so his 86th birthday is coming up. He's a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers,
0:17.1	received the National Humanities member, and is a recipient of a number of other awards, of course.
0:22.8	And today's poem is called How to Be a Poet.
0:25.5	It goes like this.
0:28.7	To remind myself, one,
0:33.9	make a place to sit down.
0:38.4	Sit down. Sit down.
0:41.3	Be quiet.
0:55.2	You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge, skill, more of each than you have, inspiration, work,
0:57.4	growing older.
1:02.5	Patience, for patience joins time to eternity.
1:05.9	Any readers who like your poems,
1:07.9	doubt their judgment.
1:10.7	Two.
1:16.5	Breathe with unconditional breath, the unconditioned air.
1:19.4	Shun electric wire.
1:21.9	Communicate slowly.
1:25.0	Live a three-dimensioned life.
1:27.0	Stay away from screens. Stay away from screens.
1:32.2	Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in.
	...

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