The Peace of Wild Things

On Wendell Berry, Poetry, and Our Literary Journal's Theme

The Way Back to Ourselves Literary Journal is proud to present our Fall Collection: The Peace of Wild Things.

Come! Be enchanted by peace, the wild, and the work of Wendell Berry!

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN SEPT. 1-OCT. 1, 2024. We are a Pushcart Prize Nominating Journal. Learn more here.

Some Thoughts on Theme

1.

As the editors and I were trying to find a fall theme for the literary journal that would live up to the huge success of the Spring Journal’s Collection: Renaissance, I was reading the poetry of Wendell Berry. We discussed some ideas: Do we pick another “Re” themed word? Do we complement Renaissance in some way? Or do we do something completely different? In the previous journals, it seemed the theme always came so easily.

As last, I felt like I was at a creative impasse, and I didn’t like it.

I pondered, “God, where are you leading me?” each night as I fell asleep to the deeply profound and spiritual poetry of Wendell Berry. Then, I’d wake with lines to write because of his words. I saw God everywhere through his rugged, simple, and often austere lens. I was better for it.

My time in his verse almost felt opposite to the high art and vivid colors of the Renaissance. Berry’s work was about stripping ourselves down to spirit, love, and the earth—only. The more I walked out into the poetic wilderness of Berry’s world, the more at home and perceptive I became about the natural and spiritual world.

His mediations were breathing new life into me as a faithful creative, writer, and servant.

And then it hit me. God was talking to me all along—and it was through Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things. With this epiphany, I KNEW we had ourselves a GORGEROUS theme that was all her own: THE PEACE OF WILDS THINGS.

2.

So where do we go from here?

Bring us your wild, your peace, your poetry, your rugged heart, your Romantic verse from the woods… your mediations with God at sunset… your naturalistic canvas and sketches… your black and white photography…

We want to know what wild things—be it spiritual, natural, or relational—bring you peace. We want to know your journeys: the brokenness, the ranging mountains of it, the winding dirt roads… the deep satisfaction of deep satisfaction… the unearthing of mercy and grace.

Find them, make them, and bring them all!

Bring your peace!

Bring your wild!

We want to stand in awe.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, WHERE DO I BEGIN? That’s easy… Go sit outside in the woods or meander a flowered path for a little while more and get yourself a copy of Wendell Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things.

Then watch this:

Then listen to our NEW The Way Back Podcast to learn more and get inspired:

And, of course, enjoy some of Wendell Berry’s poetry here:

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

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 might be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in 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.

From The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Counterpoint, 1999)


THE SYCAMORE 

In the place that is my own place, whose earth 
I am shaped in and must bear, there is an old tree growing, 
a great sycamore that is a wondrous healer of itself. 
Fences have been tied to it, nails driven into it, 
hacks and whittles cut in it, the lightning has burned it. 
There is no year it has flourished in 
that has not harmed it. There is a hollow in it 
that is its death, though its living brims whitely 
at the lip of the darkness and flows outward. 
Over all its scars has come the seamless white 
of the bark. It bears the gnarls of its history 
healed over. It has risen to a strange perfection 
in the warp and bending of its long growth. 
It has gathered all accidents into its purpose. 
It has become the intention and radiance of its dark fate. 
It is a fact, sublime, mystical and unassailable. 
In all the country there is no other like it. 
I recognize in it a principle, an indwelling 
the same as itself, and greater, that I would be ruled by. 
I see that it stands in its place and feeds upon it, 
and is fed upon, and is native, and maker.

From The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry (Penguin, 2018)

Find out all of the details about submitting your poetry, non-fiction, essays, photography, paintings, and other fine art HERE.

DONATE TO THE CAUSE: We are completely FREE. Free to submit, free to read, free to listen! If you feel moved by our work, would you consider donating to our cause? Any amount is a blessing. My hope this journal is to be able to give our editors a love offering for their hard work and dedication. Might you join in the giving? You can donate at the DONATE TO THE CAUSE icon on the contact page above. Just scroll down a bit.

And here’s a different way to contribute:

A voice is calling,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
“Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

ISAIAH 40:3-5

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We can’t wait to see what you’ll do! Share this with the writers and creatives in your life!

You belong here,

me

PS- It’s the last call to register to become a student in our poetry cohort! There are only a few seats left! It’s 6-weeks of goodness taught by me (English professor, writer, editor, etc.) and

Heather Lobe Johnson

, writer, podcast, and founder of Loved Letters.

Just message me to get started or visit our store to learn more and register here.