The Peace of Wild Things
This Sunday morning we want to greet our readers with something beautiful for our Covid Positive section. This poem was sent to us on Facebook is perfect antidote to the constant stress of what we call the real world. Take a day off everyone.
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 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.
The poem was written and read by Wendell Berry, a farmer, poet, and environmentalist who has published more than 50 books. Video directed and animated by Katy Wang. Illustration and art direction by Charlotte Ager. Music and sound by David Kamp.
SUPPORT OFFGUARDIAN
If you enjoy OffG's content, please help us make our monthly fund-raising goal and keep the site alive.
For other ways to donate, including direct-transfer bank details click HERE.
ILLUSION Ella Wheeler Wilcox God and I in space alone And nobody else in view. “And where are the people, O Lord,” I said, “The earth below, and the sky o’er head And the dead whom once I knew?” “That was a dream,” God smiled and said, “A dream that seemed to be true. There were no people, living or dead, There was no earth, and no sky o’er head There was only myself – in you.” “Why do I feel no fear,” I asked, “Meeting you here this way, For I have sinned I know full well, And is there heaven, and is there hell, And is this the judgment day?” “Nay, those were but dreams,” the Great God said, “Dreams, that have ceased to be. There are no such things as fear or sin, There is no you – you never have been – There is nothing… Read more »
humanity – that most frightened animal; frightened of itself, frightened by everything: its world held together by fear, torn apart by fear, pauses for a moment to smell the flowers…
like 🙂
When you fall in love the first moment you see her and she goes cherry red, play it really cool….but brave up..say almost nothing at first, whilst you try not to stutter..then spit it out clenching your teeth whilst trying to smile and fake charming (whilst terrified) cos you know she will probably say no
“would you like to come to a gig with me?”
She said OK. Where are we going?
Still Here. As is Tony McPhee of The Groundhogs. He’s 77 now.
First band I saw, when I was 16 but now I had a date.
“3744 James Road – Groundhogs”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9psUOP9QIU8
Tony
I love the musical version of this poem by Malcolm Dalglish. It’s rather difficult to do well, but here is a reasonably good recording.
For many years, since 1993 when we moved into our old house, with our young kids, after we had reorganised our new home, including getting rid of all the old building rubble. The Spark (Electrician) selling it said, I have rewired the entire house, and also re-roofed it with my mates, which he had… This massive pile of rubble covered with a bit of soil (now a patio, thanks to my mate who was unemployed for a bit and even homeless for 3 months – we said no its OK you can stay here) He said that is a Rockery. I thought no that is a load of building rubbish, covered with a bit of soil. We had been wanting to move for 3 years, and so I said, OK….got a £5K discount, but you have got to move out in 6 weeks (otherwise we would have been homeless –… Read more »
Interesting observation. 6 good friends. Attended the same schools. One went to University and obtained 2 degrees in Accounting and finance (Me) and became a CPA. The others pretty much drifted into various avenues of employment. 1 in Canada, 1 in Australia (Me), 2 in NZ and 2 in RSA. Of the 6 only one (me) believes that Covid is nonsense and ultimately the vaccine will kill you in a year or two. Sorry, not believes, Knows. Accounting may be the most boring profession on Earth but it trains you to think ito Dr’s and Cr’s. Cause and effect. Everything must balance. And the equation they trying to sell us does not balance!
Everyone I know personally are members of the covid cult and lap up the propaganda. As much as I’ve tried to enlighten them with articles and videos from Offguardian, The Corbett Report, Global Research, and other sites. Most were university educated also.
What gets me here in Australia is the unquestioning, unblinking mass compliance of the covid measures.
I’ve seen bloody lambs with more rebelliousness and gumption than most people, especially the men!
Yes, I’m male but I have noticed that.
It is my observation that generally females are far more concerned about the virus and being vaccinated. Perhaps it’s because they’re generally more vocal. Most everyone I know has been vaccinated or has an appointment to do so. My girlfriend and I are definitely in the minority as we don’t plan on being vaccinated. We had an interesting experience over the weekend. We went to the small Mom and Pop farm store where we buy bread and eggs and produce from the local farmers. We noticed some people both in and out of the store had masks on and we put ours on because that has been the requirement for the last year. However, when we arrived at the door, the sign had been changed to inform everyone that those who were fully vaccinated didn’t have to wear a mask. So we took off our masks, purchased what we wanted,… Read more »
Not sure I would buy from a store populated with such stupid people. If I went into a store and everyone was vaccinated I would wear a mask to protect myself from them! Once vaccinated you are infectious.
Yes, very depressing. Clearly the global dumbing down has been very effective.
I imagine sometimes the creatures behind the scamdemic must be rolling around laughing at how successful their mass pysops has been.
I just try and emotionally detach now otherwise it gets too depressing.
Have a good week…
Gezzah, they always have a good laugh for sure. You can see it with their “double mutant variant”, those people falling flat on their faces they showed us at the beginning, miracle cures from “potato soup”, the massive nonsense generated around hydroxychloroquine … and the list goes on and I don’t even look at the media. I must say the double mutant variant did raise a smile in me myself.
Yep, they must be having a good old giggle while sipping their Dom Perignon and joking about how stupid people are. As I said above, I just detach emotionally now coz that’s about all we can do. Otherwise I’d go insane myself. Have you had any success at waking people up Petra?
This has to rank as their most successful pysops – getting so many to believe there was a deadly “pandemic” and that an experimental gene therapy with god knows what in it has been heavily pushed as the “cure”.
And most people have fallen for it completely. I’m still waiting on the variant from the Faroe Islands to show up😜
Great stuff. Sprung me a few thoughts and reckon one day soon going to hit you guys with an imaginative, amusing poem which includes the two Off G editors, admins and Tony and his second earlies. Seriously, lovely reads recently.
I read recently that you can relieve backaches by lying on the bare ground for about 30 minutes – something to do with Schumann Resonance…Though there’s few places left in the city where you can lie down and relax…
I just left a comment which disappeared into thin air. It went something like this. Everybody is capable of creating good poetry (except perhaps psychopaths or sociopaths). When somebody writes a poem of nature on this blog it produces a plethora of often very good responses in verse, which spread like mycelia, or come to life like frogspawn, with little wriggling tadpoles of creative forces fighting for survival, from the talented people who comment here. Feminists claim this of Sylvia Plath for themselves. For me it speaks of all creative beings. Mushrooms Overnight, very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam, Acquire the air. Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us; The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding, Even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, Earless and eyeless, Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes.… Read more »
This video will be seen by very few because my channel is unsearchable, and my videos are hidden by YouTube. Punishment for correcting the “Official Lie”
Do you have any other videos – this was very informative
There is something of a poet in all of us (except the sociopaths and psychopaths). When a neat little evocative poem of nature appears it spreads like mycelia, or populates like frogspawn, till the lovely people who comment here, are inspired to present their own accomplished works, or those of others. This is Sylvia Plath explaining what I am trying to say. “Mushrooms Overnight, very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam, Acquire the air. Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us; The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding, Even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, Earless and eyeless, Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes. We Diet on water, On crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking Little or nothing. So many of us! So many of us! We are shelves, we are Tables, we are… Read more »
discharge the 5g within positive negative
tesla
earth yourself
bare foot in the grass
like wardencliffe connections
tune yourself
become
tap into
schumann electrical fields
capture the
energy of the sun
uv b dose
process
then
vit c
watch the little flies dance around your energy field
in harmony
“…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 in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds
I come into the peace of wild things”
—
fine but…narrow ?
….as not so peaceful for a mother water bird if Heron decides to feast on her young chicks.
The Blossom.
Little think’st thou, poor flower,
Whom I’ve watch’d six or seven days,
And seen thy birth, and seen what every hour
Gave to thy growth, thee to this height to raise
And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough,
Little think’st thou,
That it will freeze anon, and that I shall
To-morrow find thee fallen, or not at all…..
John Donne.
Some daily practice of renewing my own human nature as a creature of this earth, even if not so wild and free, has always been essential to finding my way through this world. And though such experience has become all the more essential since lies have laid siege to the world for over a year now, I generally can’t find the same sense of renewal as I once did, pre-plandemic. Maybe my soul’s malaise is in no small part due to the mad machinery of industrial capitalist ‘civilization’ threatening to abolish nature itself, once and for all, far beyond forebodings of romantic literature, for Humanity 2.0, severing our biological connection with the earth and replacing natural evolution with Frankenscience. But more than any dark, dystopian future threatening to become reality, it’s the present wasteland of human nature already desensitized to life and living and marching along to the drumbeats of… Read more »
…the time has now come for individual humans to know which tendencies and events around them are machinations…” of the dark forces etc.quote from Dr. Rudolph. Steiner
get orf the queens land
civil person
human
hue man
you yes you
stop shredding shedding your distemper
on crown lands
corporation
and city of london
take your lymph glands poisoned spike protein sweat
clear orf
or we will have you shot
and dumped over the fence
with press release that you where heroin junky or local postitute
public parks public private ownership
sovereign you gave up your queen ship king ship
for citizen smith ship ruled bonded
contracted
compliance or you will be charged
you
person
human
human rights yes you have them
law dictionaries of old called humans monsters
Our new guest. He seems to have moved into our porch. The door of which fell off about 10 years ago.
Beautiful capture!
canon with telephoto ?
excellent shot..
Go Wild?
is not an exhortation
to violent contemplation
is not an exclamation
to boost your fascination
with beer and devastation
its more EXHILARATION
re-assess your situation
if it needs some alteration
don’t be prone to hesitation
that’s just mental suffocation
let your self-determination
over-ride indoctrination
free your mind from your frustration
and GO WILD!
CULTURE SHOCK
4 dislikes, excellent!!
This is so lovely. We do indeed live in a beautiful world of wonder. Being in nature and tuning into the humming of the bees is so much healthier then tuning into the fake mind suck of a TV.and all the madness and insanity that it pushes out..
Beautiful.
Nature is the Last Frontier. The maniacs who presume the right to “rule” all living beings have yet to succeed in completely subduing nature.
And what do maniacs do with those they cannot rule? They destroy them. So now, by continually seeking newer and more inhuman ways of plundering the Earth, the maniacs are determined to destroy nature completely.
If that means making the planet uninhabitable, so be it. Maniacs are incapable of seeing the consequences of their actions – because they don’t care what comes of it.
Once, many years ago, while out walking the dog, I saw the most magnificent sunset I’ve ever seen. Yet the whole time I watched enthralled, my dog was sniffing the sidewalk; he never once looked up.
His indifference pales in comparison to the indifference of the “rulers”/maniacs.
Thank heavens we have of these experiences from time to time that try to remind us of what we are. Ever since our species acquired a mind, an ability to imagine, we perceive everything as if through a screen. But sometimes, suddenly, that screen is lifted and we are able to “see directly”: the colours from dim become shining, the lines become solid, the whole scenery becomes alive as if for the first time, and we become alive with it.
The other species not possessing a mind, are in permanent direct contact with what they perceive and the experiences of awakening we, as humans, seldom have, the other species have them permanently, even if it is as “trivial” as sniffing the sidewalk.
So don’t worry, your dog is having the same enthralling experience you are having and never ceased to have them.
Great poem and great message. The only antidote to the madness that surrounds us is nature. Lime – or Linden, it’s old name – and horse chestnut are fully in leaf now and offer beautiful shades of green. When feeling troubled I go and sit on a large rock in front of a very old beech in one of the few ancient woods left. I discovered recently that the local Druids meet up at this beech once a year. A place of power Don Juan would have said in Carlos Castenada’s books… until the inevitable annoying human appears. The last time I went a birder male in his 50s came along with stuff dangling – long lens and binoculars. He wore shades on this cloudy day and dressed in black. His ego told him he looked cool. “What’s so special about that tree” he asked. I said it was a very special,… Read more »
Nature is a companion as events separate us from loved ones, while others push us away.
Nature speaks to us in a language that we understand — though strangely it’s alien to the very people who claim to speak on Nature’s behalf.
Nature will always be something we can never fully comprehend, nor should, because faith and love, like passion, destroy, or are destroyed by, those who look too close or who would deconstruct them through ideological blinkers of “my truth” or “The Science”.
Nature doesn’t understand it and she doesn’t need to. Their ideology already has its end in sight. Those people have made a death cult for themselves.
Lovely. If only the world would come down from its trans and learn some humility before nature. Alas, decades of transhumanist fantasies will force us to face our limits at our own peril. It’s looking like dark times ahead.
There’s something John Zerzan wrote that has stayed with me, that modern life by its complexity leaves us feeling confused and alienated, whereas nature is infinitely more complicated in its design and yet that leaves us feeling reassured and content to be overwhelmed by it. The paraphrasing is awful but that’s the general gist of the thing.
ANY disconnect from nature is in denial of oneself… 😉
I’m watching the film ‘Electric Dreams’ for the first time since its initial release in the mid-1980s and what at the time looked like a so-so rom-com now looks like some of the creepiest transhumanist predictive programming.
Good observation. Going as far back as The Twilight Zone and A. Hitchcock Presents (even I Love Lucy, occasionally), mass culture has loved to expose us to themes like trauma, mental dissociation, multiple personalities, demonic possession and spirit ‘walk-ins’. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, ITV’s Thriller and the Hammer House of Horror, not to mention movies like E.T., the Elm Street franchise and many others, made these quite explicit. By the time The X-Files came along, Hollywood was practically rubbing it in our faces. ‘Revelation of the method’ and all that. Just goes to show that technology and entertainment have always pursued a deeper agenda – one of reshaping and ultimately replacing hunanity. Their inner workings have likewise thrived on child abuse, torture and manipulation. Viewing the covid episode as a logical and systematic step in this very long process will make things so much clearer. And needless to say,… Read more »
Any news from yesterday’s demonstrations?
Yes, I went to a big Freedom Rally in Brisbane, Australia. Several thousands of people, great speeches and atmosphere, police friendly and providing escort to march around the city. Absolutely nothing reported in any mainstream media.
But a very beautiful, sunny, warm autumn day and we made many friends and allies.
Thanks. Such reports are greatly welcome because we know the mainstream media will not report them, or downplay them if they do.
Beautiful. Thank you so much, Off-G.
I prefer this happy ditty from Pink Floyd “The memories of a man in his old age Are the deeds of a man in his prime You shuffle in the gloom of the sick room And talk to yourself as you die Life is a short warm moment And death is a long cold rest You get your chance to try In the twinkling of an eye Eighty years with luck or even less” I was in Tesco yesterday the masked women behind the till. Asked me is there any reason you are not wearing a mask. I replied , for the same reason I am not wearing a turtle helmet. She looked puzzled and enquired what a turtle helmet was. I explained a big bird of prey could drop a turtle from a great height. If it were to land on your head it most likely would kill you.… Read more »
Great article about wild animals:
Death Rattles of the Global Arrogance and Its Appendages | The Vineyard of the Saker
Really lovely Wendell, thank you🙏
It’s Sunday night down here in Melbourne, and just listened to this song when I saw your post: https://youtu.be/-YKJKT-hRq0
More of this sort of thing OffG please!
CCCP, we know, (covidiot cancel culture piss-take, what you will )… apologies, sincerely, brother Potts, for various failures to respond. I was attacked… on various fronts, for speaking knowledge. Not my problem, in the future, or the past. I warned everybody long before ‘events’, and explained Why. “Capitalism has Failed” Christine Lagarde, Mansion House, May 2014… I refuse to be drawn, hung or quartered further, wasting my time on evil gamesMan-shit… even to discuss. Life? Too short ! It appears that even here @ OffG. people were blind to obvious reality. But hey, at least they’ve finally quit using Gmail, which, like Yahoo, were ensuring that any email from me, would arrive CONTENTLESS… i TESTED them, from private servers in Hong Kong… With multiple Ccs & blind Ccs. Stubborn black Kats, were well warned and from HK, long long before the abso’firkin’lutely’ OBVIOUS! You can lead a horse 2water… but… Read more »
Greetings T & D, really nice to hear from you. I hear you about the threads here, and yes, quite a number of trolls, obviously from the 77th Brigade or other agencies. However… I still come here to connect with others, vent my spleen and coz a number of the commenters post things that I just go “wow, that’s profound” and, yes, broaden my knowledge. The world is indeed mad and in the grip of mass psychosis. You can lead a horse to water…. exactly. About to come face to face with hordes of mask wearers at the train station. I can’t open their eyes for them. I’ve stopped trying coz it’s like trying to debate with a brick wall. And it does my head in. Anyway, I’m just trying to get thru each day, and try not to let others paranoia and irrational fear get to me. Music is… Read more »
Speaking of wild things…
In the tradition of Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” I’d like to see Nature, or some such mag, start an “Animal of the Year” for these Covid times. Some ideas:
2020–sheep
2021–lemming
2022–ferret (odds-on favorite)
you forgot jack-ass, pig and lab-rat..
Animals, unlike humans, can not help the fate dished out to them; so perhaps it’s like shooting ducks in a pond to use animals as metaphors for human failings.
Unless, of course, humans are as hopelessly at the mercy of…humans…as any other creature.
I much prefer the furred and feathered over your common ‘lesser spotted’ (the less the better) imbecile…
thankfully I’m surrounded by them, the furred and feathered that is….
Love it. 🙂
FYI
Another lover of nature and art from Kentucky.
https://www.harlanhubbard.com/History/lifeonthefringe.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/227291.Harlan_Hubbard
I’ll keep this very short as i’m aware that some people are finding ‘all this mention of covid boring’
1 If you have had the jab there is a good chance you are not going to survive this winter
2 Make a will…it’s important,wouldn’t want you to die intestate and the government gain from your demise
This is very beautiful- during this hard time, nature has been a great comfort.
Love this, imagery and inspiration very much needed for these times.
Wonderful poem – actually speaks to the Human condition. As the innocents are being bombed and Palestinian families and babies are destroyed in Israel perhaps another attempt at a sermon on this Sunday to file in your ‘perma spammed folder’ Elijah Magnier explains the whole history of the neighbourhood of the couple dozen families in Jerusalem and the duplicitous Israeli justice system; that has acted over the decades to dispossess them. Amazingly that has just unified the Palestinians and their regional supporters, for the first time since the intafada. https://ejmagnier.com/2021/05/13/gaza-hits-israels-prestige/ It seems to me the 1700 rocket attacks and suicide drones against military targets and how they have been laid through the length of Israel is as clear a shot above the heads final fair warning as any ever. Nutty must go. A genuine peace conference IN Jerusalem running nonstop until they achieve agreement is the only way forward. UN… Read more »
“A genuine peace conference IN Jerusalem running nonstop until they achieve agreement is the only way forward. UN forces to work with both sides.”
“A more direct and HONEST way to deal with the situation is to end THE WAR RACKET, Corporate Fascism and Imperialism. Zionism is not Judaism… never was, never will be.”
“Let the Palestinian diaspora return… ALL of it. To Hell with War!“
stolen land, handed over by imperialists and force populated by an alien and aggressive people…
ethnic cleansing began as the boats were arriving..
there are no ‘solutions’.. because this is a tried and tested method of displacing native populations..
ask any tyrant..
a cursory glance at any map of palestine comparing 1948 to 2021 should dispel any contrary notions..
I read this on my return from a very peaceful walk to say goodbye to the sun which I do each day….I look out over a small lake where 100s of white egrets come back to roost and it is a joy to watch them return each evening as the sun disappears…they come from every corner of a wide vista in small flocks…appear to express their happiness with the day by diving and twisting as they approach the area… teasing each other with flight manoeuvres…
a little Willy wagtail bird dressed in its black and white suit came to join the dog and I as we watched the returning egrets….it all was truly peaceful so far from the crazy nonsense of the world…the last rays of the disappearing sun are so often magical in colour…
Edith, you write that so sweet. We love herons too (egrets) The most interesting ones, we have seen can do both fresh water and sea water. Meanwhile, we got into a bit of a hurricane in our son’s sailing boat last august, and sheltered behind the wind off this little island in the North Atlantic, and then it got even more complicated. We all on the boat witnessed this cos, we couldn’t (thank God move) The anchor chain had got wrapped around some some rocks, wey down below…and we were running out of food…but still had loads of fresh water. but The Capt said – go easy on that. I am glad I brought my fishing kit, we lived on Pollock for a few days, till it calmed down a bit..My son tried to free dive, but he couldn’t quite do it…so he walked along the beach – and asked… Read more »
Birds are amazing creatures…I have watched them for most of my life…before memory I am told I used to keep the chooks company…I provide a home for dozens of wild aust bush turkeys..the boys build mounds with total enthusiasm each year….strut about with a big yellow wattle and attempt to impress the females….she lays an egg in the most impressive mound, he carefully tends the eggs keeping them at right temp, hatches out the chicken and then hunts it…these tiny little balls of feathers are on their own from day one… I am forever fascinated how they know they are turkeys …they do tend to sort of flock together….nothing like those gannets…they look amazing…my lot are bred for running fast….when you are on your own from day 1 it is essential…when most birds are nurturing somewhere in the bird world life, these turkeys are a fascinating oddity… most people hate… Read more »
Wendell Berry is one of my favourite humans – I’m glad to see he’s still alive (at 86!).
Thank you for bringing his work to a wider audience. 🙂