Wendell Berry and his writing for a solid 10 years or so. As an author, environmental activist and farmer – his words cut deep for me, get straight to what matters – the earth and our place on it. 
Not being a poet, I struggle to communicate the power of his words and how they pull on my heart – warming and hurting it at the same time…. So instead – I just use them.
A much younger me made a screenprint featuring some of his words – they’re so simple, but resonate so strongly with me I think I pretty much screenprinted every t-shirt I had at the time with the following patch… 
They come from one of his poems “Below” which reads like so….
“Above trees and rooftops is the range of symbols: banner, cross and star; air war, the mode of those who live by symbols; the pure abstraction of travel by air. Here a spire holds up an angel with trump and wings; he’s in his element. Another lifts a hand with forefinger pointing up to admonish that all’s not here. All’s not. But I aspire downward. Flyers embrace the air, and I’m a man who needs something to hug. All my dawns cross the horizon and rise, from underfoot. What I stand for is what I stand on.”
I had forgotten about this screen and only just found it gathering dust under our house this past weekend. While I made it around 10 years ago, the words still have such a deep impact on me, so while our little daughter slept, I printed a small number of them to spread the love. I hope like crazy our little daughter gets to grow big and strong to enjoy this earth of ours. I hope that my deep worry over climate change, the plight of refugees and politics seemingly concerned only with maintaining an economic system that is built to break is nothing. I hope I’m wrong and that it’s all fine. In the meantime, I say *yes* to living a life which puts the earth (and all living things) first – to me this just translate to living simply, locally and with enormous intent to do good. Thanks to Wendell for being one of the good ones.
]]>
Great post. I am reading “The Gift of Good Land” at the moment. Wendell is fantastic!
Beautiful