A Voice for Our Only World
Updated: 6 hours ago
Quiet now, the written words live on
September 12, 2026 :: Good Things
A favorite author died recently.
Wendell Berry wrote essays, poetry and novels about nature, conservation, rural life and human nature.
In college days, I learned of Wendell Berry in an Agricultural Journalism class. I hadn’t read his work yet, so I was surprised when I saw his name on a flyer in the window of the best used bookstore near campus. It announced he’d speak at the Lutheran church downtown the next week.
I was surprised again inside the shop when I found his recent book on the shelves of professors’ review copies for sale. THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA: Culture and Agriculture was its title and the title of his upcoming presentation. I took the book with me to his talk and hoped he might sign it.
After classes, I slipped into the back of the meeting room just as the host introduced Mr. Berry. I soaked up his every word, opinion and expression.
The crowd around him afterward was big and appreciative and I had to get to my part-time job. I think of that missed opportunity to speak to him every time I read his poetry and essays that reside next to the works of other foundational authors like Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold.
Coincidentally, a few weeks before he died, I bought a used copy of his collected essays on nature, conservation, agriculture and politics titled OUR ONLY WORLD. I was reading it the morning my wife, Mary, told me he had passed. It would take several days before I’d pick up the book again.
When I see it on the end table next to my favorite chair, I flash back to a young man feeling his way into the world with questions and convictions of his own. And I think about how the world, Wendell Berry and I have changed and not changed since he shared his thoughts in my hometown almost 50 years ago.
There are moments in our lives that are imprinted on our minds and souls. My introduction to Wendell Berry and his ideas came at a formative time. I was fortunate to hear his voice and see his eyes before I read his words. I still hear his cadence and Kentucky lilt when I read a passage or poem. And I'm still challenged by his scholar's mind and soothed by his poet's soul.
LESSONS FROM WENDELL BERRY
Wendell Berry was a thoughtful man. His clear thinking can’t be summed up on a bumper sticker or a poster. You must read and reflect on his thoughts, then compare and contrast them with yours. That’s the legacy of a thoughtful writer.
Before we explore his essays, here’s an irony. Wendell Berry was firmly opposed to owning a computer. He didn’t want to be more obliged to the electric power company, technology providers and the businesses that benefit from our adoption of new things and practices just because they are new.
He said using a computer would not be a better way to write, it would not make him a better writer, nor would it create a closer community or bring him closer to a better, simpler, heathier, more peaceful way of life.
Instead, he wrote his observations on paper with a Number 2 pencil by daylight. Then his wife, Tanya, edited his work and transcribed it to paper with a classic Royal typewriter. He wrote more than 40 books this way. Here’s his essay on his position.
With no disrespect, I wrote some of this story with pen and paper, some on my laptop. And you’re likely reading it on a screen. This is an irreversible irony for many of us.
THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA: Culture and Agriculture (1977)
The title of this book refers to changes in agricultural practices and attitudes since our nation’s pre-industrial, agrarian, settlement days.
In the forward to his subsequent book THE GIFT OF GOOD LAND, Mr. Berry says in THE UNSETTLING, he “sought to comprehend the causes and consequences of industrial agriculture within the bounds of a single argument: that agriculture is an integral part of the structure, both biological and cultural, that sustains human life, and that you cannot disturb one part of the structure without disturbing all of it…”
This book is considered the most influential call to action for the support of the family farm and a warning about the growing dominance of agribusiness and corporate farming.
THE GIFT OF GOOD LAND: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural (1981)
In its forward, Mr. Berry explains that this book by contrast to THE UNSETTLING “is a collection of essays written separately for magazine publication” that “both confirms and somewhat improves upon it by presenting a greater number and diversity of exemplary practices.”
This compilation of essays emphasizes the interdependence of people and the land. He shares his search for examples of stewardship in the Peruvian highlands, Arizona deserts, Amish country and close to home in Kentucky.
OUR ONLY WORLD: Ten Essays (2015)
Mr. Berry summarizes his approach to environmental concerns in these stories: “Maybe we could give up saving the world and start to live savingly in it.” He focuses on local stewardship of the land, maintaining the bond between people and the land, placing limitations on industrialism, and keeping our actions in scale with what we know about the local ecosystems. This collection of stories is a good introduction to the breadth and depth of his insights.
There are many reviews and analyses of Wendell Berry’s writings. But let him speak to you.
Let his works challenge you, convince you or confirm what you believe. His well-chosen words can shape your outlook on our only world and our place in it. His writings prove a universal truth: reading good writing is not a passive act. That’s one of his good gifts to us.
More of his good thoughts:
“Stand in defense of precious things, give thanks for precious things. It may be that the danger we have inflicted upon every precious thing reveals the preciousness of it and shows us our duty.”
“Be patient.” Big, difficult, deeply-entrenched problems and practices “won’t be solved or changed quickly, maybe not in your lifetime. But learn everything you can about a place or a precious thing and share it. Then you increase the possibility that you will make a good example.”
"In my essays, I have tried to construct, to lay out, map out the grounds of a legitimate, authentic hope. If you can find one good example, then you have hope. If you can change yourself, if you can make certain requirements of yourself that you are able to fulfill, then you have a reason for hope."
“The world and our life in it are conditional gifts. We have the world to live in and the use of it to live from on the condition that we will take good care of it. And to take good care of it we have to know it and know how to take care of it. And to know it and be willing to take care of it, we have to love it.”
If you are curious about his poetry, here’s a good choice.
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry (1968)
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Godspeed and thank you, Mr. Berry.
::
Learn more about Wendell Berry:
Bill Moyers' video interview and transcript, 2013
A Tribute to Wendell Berry on PBS/Public Television Service
MENU Home | Galleries | Stories & Essays | Journal | What's New? | About/Contact
© Cliff Zenor : All images and text copyright by Cliff Zenor 2010-2026.
Contents cannot be copied or used in any form
at any time without the written permission of
Cliff Zenor Photography. All rights reserved.
