What Hard Travail God Does in Death – Wendell Berry

Sabbaths poem I from 1980. What hard travail God does in death! He strives in […]

87b78eb707f067b0ee44c05dfdded54e4155543b_mSabbaths poem I from 1980.

What hard travail God does in death!
He strives in sleep, in our despair,
And all flesh shudders underneath
The nightmare of His sepulcher.

The earth shakes, grinding its deep stone;
All night the cold wind heaves and pries;
Creation strains sinew and bone
Against the dark door where He lies.

The stem bent, pent in seed, grow straight
And stands. Pain breaks in song. Surprising
The merely dead, graves fill with light
Like opened eyes. He rests in rising.

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