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A review by billyjepma
This Day: New and Collected Sabbath Poems 1979 - 2012 by Wendell Berry
5.0
A dense and beautiful collection of poems that perfectly encapsulate all the things that make Wendell Berry such an approachable and timeless poet. He repeats themes a lot, but never presents them in a way that feels redundant. He lets his passions and frustrations and fears shine, and reading his work—especially out loud—is a meditative and almost healing. You can’t help but hear the sounds of nature while reading Berry’s work.
Berry might not be the most profound or technically stunning of poets—although I’d never admit to being able to define what those traits should even look like—but he is a master of voice and tone and lures his reader in with an air of simplicity and then traps them with his layered and complex thematics. There were countless times throughout this collection where a poem would gently take me by the hand, walk me through it’s beautiful language, and then sucker punch me with a final, decisive line or stanza that left me reeling. That’s the beauty of Berry’s poetry.
I can’t recommend this book enough.
Berry might not be the most profound or technically stunning of poets—although I’d never admit to being able to define what those traits should even look like—but he is a master of voice and tone and lures his reader in with an air of simplicity and then traps them with his layered and complex thematics. There were countless times throughout this collection where a poem would gently take me by the hand, walk me through it’s beautiful language, and then sucker punch me with a final, decisive line or stanza that left me reeling. That’s the beauty of Berry’s poetry.
I can’t recommend this book enough.