Poetry seems to be...

on everybody's mind.

My Connecticut friend Mark Waterhouse sent along this poem from his 35th Dartmouth class reunion.

Mark and I go back a long ways. Because of our joint work in the California economic development market, we can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the I-5/US 99 drive from LAX Airport through Bakersfield, through Tulare, through Fresno, through Modesto, through Merced, through Sacramento to Chico, which is 90 miles north of Sacramento. It was a great series of adventures! Thanks for driving, Mark.

Here's the poem.

A Timbered Choir
by Wendell Berry

Slowly, slowly, they return
To the small woodland let alone:
Great trees, outspreading and upright,
Apostles of the living light.

Patient as stars, they build in air
Tier after tier a timbered choir,
Stout beams upholding weightless grace
Of song, a blessing on this place.

They stand in waiting all around,
Uprisings of their native ground,
Downcomings of the distant light;
They are the advent they await.

Receiving sun and giving shade,
Their life's a benefaction made.
And is a benediction said
Over the living and the dead.

In fall their brightened leaves, released,
Fly down the wind, and we are pleased
To walk on radiance, amazed.
O light come down to earth, be praised!

There is a picture that goes with the poem, which you can download by clicking here.