i go among the trees and sit still, wendell berry

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

(C) Wendell Berry

• Where do you go to find peace when you are filled with fear? Describe the place in your journal. Then, reflect, what is it about the place that soothes you?

• What song would you sing if you were at peace? What words, what notes, what loveliness would pour forth?

• Go into the woods and sing with the trees. As the branches move above you and the trunks sway, merge your voice with the trees’. Write a poem about your experience beginning with the line, “I hear my song at last…”

  You can also listen to Olivia Sprinkle read the poem on the video below. Olivia’s book “To Hear the Trees Speak” is about her adventures in listening to trees from around the world. You can buy the book wherever books are sold.