Wendell Berry-I Love Mountains Day-2008-Part 1 of 2
Probably because way back I first heard of Wendell Berry as a poet — and I knew little about his farming, his academic life and other writings, less perhaps about his being an ecologist — and probably because “The Peace of Wild Things” is one of my favorite poems, I think poets and others in West Virginia might appreciate what Berry said at a huge rally in Frankfort, Ky., on Valentine’s Day this year. The Herald-Leader received a flood of letters for not giving more attention to the speech and the vital issues Wendell Berry the poet, the environmental defender, brought forth. For some of these reasons, I think poetry blog readers might find this speech instructive inasmuch as it is as clear a message as a poet can give about mountaintop removal and readers’ relationships with the health of place and community. I’ve uploaded the speech in two parts from YouTube.
