Listening to NPR on the radio this morning, I heard Garrison Keillor read Wendell Berry’s “How to be a Poet.” As one of Kentucky’s own, Berry is surely a favorite, and this poem one I’ve loved to read and muse upon often. In many ways (though not all), it might be retitled “How to Practice Centering Prayer.” Give it your thoughtful reflection. Who knows, maybe you are both a prayerful person and a poet; after all, God graced the lives and witness of John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, and Charles Wesley in such fashion.

How To Be a Poet

(to remind myself)

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

"How to be a Poet" by Wendell Berry from Given. © Shoemaker Hoard, 2005. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)