To the Holy Spirit

April 29, 2007 Categories: Poetry , Faith |  

O Thou, far off and here, whole and broken,
Who in necessity and in bounty wait,
Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken,
By Thy wide grace show me Thy narrow gate.

~Wendell Berry

4 Comments

  1. Carol in Oregon

    wide grace / narrow gate - oh, that’s good.

    Is That Distant Land the first Wendell Berry fiction you’ve read? I have really enjoyed it. I’ve read about 3/4 of it myself and about 1/3 of it aloud to the fam.

    Out of the blue comment: I was talking with my SIL and she read both Francine Prose’s book and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. She MUCH preferred Bird by Bird. Have you read that one yet? I thought of you because you are the most recent blog sistah who’s read the Prose book. I guess I could go searching through your lists…but I’m lazy. =)

    April 30th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
  2. carrie

    Carol - Yes, That Distant Land is the first fiction of Berry’s I’ve read. I read Collected Poems, and I’m also currently reading Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays - which makes me think and re-read paragraphs more than once!

    I did read Bird by Bird and I enjoyed it, but I don’t remember having such a “WOW” reaction to it as I did to Reading Like a Writer. I think Prose’s love of reading comes across as much - or maybe more - as her love of writing, so I clicked with that.

    April 30th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
  3. carrie

    Carol - oops, I almost forgot - here are some of my favorite passages from Bird by Bird:
    http://carrie.homeschooljournal.net/2006/01/15/what-i-want-to-remember/

    April 30th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
  4. Carol

    Thanks, Carrie. Now I’d like to read them both.

    May 3rd, 2007 at 7:59 am