The Cold

How exactly good it is
to know myself
in the solitude of winter

my body containing its own
warmth, divided from all
by the cold; and to go

separate and sure
among the trees cleanly
divided, thinking of you

perfect too in your solitude,
your life withdrawn into
your own keeping

—to be clear, poised
in perfect self-suspension
toward you, as though frozen.

And having known fully the
goodness of that, it will be
good also to melt.

-Wendell Berry


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=>The meaningfulness of solitude and peace is huge, I think, these days—especially in the midst of the chaos of life, as it starts back up again. But also the meaningfulness of being able to come outside of our shells of solitude, having discovered what we were to discover, having felt the magnitude of the solitude and the overwhelming splendor of the winter. And, like Berry, to finish that sentence, to let it change us, then start a new one, melting the solitude but sharing our melting with others, and allowing that to be good.

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