Birdsville, Kentucky by Cathy

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in 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 peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light.  For a time

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

 

A friend sent me this poem by Wendell Berry.  It is appropriate for our stay in Birdsville, Kentucky.  Berry, a poet, novelist, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer was raised in Henry County, Kentucky, only an hour and a half from where we are camping.  He graduated from the University of Kentucky with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and taught at several universities before settling on a farm with his wife and two children.  Named Lane’s Landing, Berry’s farm is situated on the bank of the Kentucky River not far from where it flows into the Ohio River beside which I sit while writing this.

Much of Berry’s work focusses on the importance of place and how our lives should be grounded in the place where we live.  This concept is one that I have been impressed with time and time again as we travel around the country.  Not only the land, but the people of that land and the community that they form is crucial in protecting (or not protecting) the sense of independence, ingenuity and creativity that makes us as individuals and organizations unique.   A thriving people are also a people who respect their roots and their environment.

 

We are camped right on the Ohio River.  From our folding chairs on its bank, we watch logs, barges or dead catfish floating by. We see egrets hunting for breakfast and hear cicadas buzzing in the trees.  Some people say that they are happiest in the mountains; others prefer the ocean.  I am a water girl.

Whether a chattering stream in the red rocks of the desert, a roaring waterfall in a dense green forest or a placid wide river in the heartland, I am most content near the water.  With light reflecting off its surface, the lap of the waves and the smell of marsh, sea, or stream, I feel most creative.  Floods of words fill my brain trying to express what I see and hear.  And most importantly, what I feel.  Content, at ease, comfortable are the closest I can come in English to describe what my heart feels.  Seated beside the water, I feel open and one with nature.

There is a lot to do around Birdsville.  We are close to Paducah, a UNESO cultural site known for the National Quilt Museum, fabric stores and artists’ galleries.  We can make a day trip to Land Between the Lakes with its massive dam creating lakes and coves.  There, herds of bison and elk roam freely and the pioneer life and spirit is celebrated and revered through living history programs.  We could tour shrines to Abraham Lincoln or simply drive country roads admiring farms and antebellum homes.

But I am content to remain here at the Birdsville Campground where waves meet shore, retrievers swim for sticks and the river washes away my fears and worry leaving me open to creativity and to peace.  I am a water girl after all.