Heather Buffum: Thankful for Wendell Barry's impact on literature, culture

To The Daily Sun,

Rest in peace Wendell Barry, 1934-2026, humanitarian, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic and farmer. 

Here is his poem, "The Peace Of Wild Things":

"When despair grows in me

and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the place of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water

And feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting for their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

Heather Buffum

Meredith