Wendell Berry - A Timbered Choir

I go among the trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.
1979

Helen Wilcox, The English Poems of George Herbert

While trying to waste some time in an effort to help me fall asleep, I was searching the Google.com online books for earlier biographical data of George Herbert & his close friend Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding. To me surprise and delight, a generous sampling of the new critical edition of The English Poems of George Herbert edited by Helen Wilcox and published by Cambridge University ($188.00) is available as an online Google.com book!!! They have withheld some pages from being viewable and viewing stops at page 149. Here is the web address:

http://books.google.com/books?lr=&id=dQCZvJj96SkC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=helen+wilcox&ots=y87fv51NLZ&sig=9MsOApPJNWvTyAgeTipMIcECbOY&hl=en#PPP1,M1

I'm not sure now long they will have this text sample available for free, but I strongly encourage anyone with an interest in George Herbert, the Episcopal Church (Anglican), 17th Century Poetry, Theology, Devotion/Contemplation, The Book of Common Prayer, and/or art taken to the highest levels of human achievement - to set aside a bit of time and enjoy this finely crafted and expertly presented edition of George Herbert the Divine.

W. H. Auden, "Unknown Citizen"

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired.
He worked in a factory and never got fired, but satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
He wasn’t a scab or odd in his views, for his Union reports that he paid his dues,(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire. Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard, right?