THEY SIT TOGETHER ON THE PORCH
They sit together on the porch, the dark
Almost fallen, the house behind them dark.
Their supper done with, they have washed and dried
The dishes--only two plates now, two glasses,
Two knives, two forks, two spoons--small work for two.
She sits with her hands folded in her lap,
At rest. He smokes his pipe. They do not speak,
And when they speak at last it is to say
What each one knows the other knows. They have
One mind between them, now, that finally
For all its knowing will not exactly know
Which one goes first through the dark doorway, bidding
Goodnight, and which sits on a while alone.
— Wendell Berry
from A Timbered Choir
For this is wisdom -
to love and live,
To take what fate
or the gods may give,
To ask no question,
to make no prayer,
To kiss the lips
and caress the hair,
Speed passion's ebb
as we greet its flow,
To have and to hold,
and, in time let go.
Love/Life Poems
