by Michael Winters
Earlier this year, we read Remembering by Wendell Berry for the Faith in Fiction book discussion. The book opens with the following prayer as an epigraph or prologue. It’s a beautiful prayer for a storyteller or artist of any kind:
Heavenly Muse, Spirit who brooded on
The world and raised it shapely out of nothing,
Touch my lips with fire and burn away
All dross of speech, so that I keep in mind
The truth and end to which my words now move
In hope. Keep my mind within that Mind
Of which it is a part, whose wholeness is
The hope of sense in what I tell. And though
I go among the scatterings of that sense,
The members of its worldly body broken,
Rule my sight by vision of the parts
Rejoined. And in my exile’s journey far
From home, be with me, so I may return.- Wendell Berry, from the novel Remembering
I think I’ll write this poem out and put it next to this printout pinned above my desk…
That’s a photo by Ralph Eugene Meatyard I grabbed off the internet, printed and put above my desk. Seen from left to right is Wendell Berry, Denise Levertov, and Thomas Merton. It was a one-time gathering at Merton’s hermitage at the Abbey of Gethsemane near Bardstown, Kentucky. I would’ve loved to have been there that day.
Berry, Meatyard and Merton were all active in central Kentucky in the late 1960s (Levertov was visiting from out of state). Each of these individuals was incredibly talented, but a big part of what made them that way was their conversations with others. Merton and Berry especially are known for their prolific letter writing as well as their published works.
Our talent is not merely a matter of individual giftedness. Our talent is also greatly grown by what we give and take with others who are also yearning for a “vision of the parts Rejoined.” That’s why we do Arts Feedback Groups, fostering a generative community of intentional creatives. In conversation with each other, we hope to help each become better artists.
This post originally existed as a newsletter sent to Arts Feedback Group participants. You can learn more about Arts Feedback here.