‘The Goal’ As Learn By Wendell Berry

by Terry Heick

I just lately attended a screening of a documentary on Wendell Berry on the Louisville Velocity Artwork Museum.

Drew Perkins and I took in what was then known as ‘The Seer’ again in July. Now titled ‘Look and See” out of, if I’m not mistaken, Berry’s reluctance to be the centerpiece of the movie, by far essentially the most transferring bit for me was the opening sequence, the place Berry’s sage voice reads his personal poem, ‘The Goal’ in opposition to a dizzying and unbelievable montage of visuals making an attempt to replicate among the greater concepts within the strains and stanzas.

The change in title is smart although, as a result of the documentary is absolutely much less about Berry and his work, and extra concerning the realities of recent farming–key themes for certain in Berry’s work, however in the identical sense that farms and rustic settings had been key themes in Robert Frost’s work: seen, however most powerfully as symbols in pursuit of broader allegories, reasonably than locations for which means.

See additionally Studying By way of Humility

Anybody who has learn any of my very own writing is aware of what a unprecedented affect Berry has been on me as a author, educator, and father. I created a type of college mannequin primarily based on his work in 2012 known as ‘The Inside-Out Faculty,’ have exchanged letters with him, and was even lucky sufficient to fulfill him final 12 months.

Proper, so, the movie. You may buy the documentary right here, and whereas I believe it misses on framing Berry for the widest doable viewers, it’s a uncommon take a look at a really non-public man and thus I can’t suggest it strongly sufficient should you’re a reader of Berry.

The issue of mixing consumerism (advertisements, promoting DVDs, promoting books) isn’t misplaced on me right here, however I’m hoping that the theme and distribution of the message outweigh any inherent (and woeful) irony when the entire items listed below are thought-about in sum. Additionally, there’s a stanza that appears to be lacking from the voice-over that I included within the transcription beneath.

The poem is taken from ‘A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems’ 1979-1997 revealed by Counterpoint Press in 1998.

The Goal

by Wendell Berry

Even whereas I dreamed I prayed that what I noticed was solely concern and no foretelling,

for I noticed the final identified panorama destroyed for the sake

of the target–the soil bulldozed, the rock blasted.

Those that had wished to go dwelling would by no means get there now.

I visited the places of work the place for the sake of the target,

the planners deliberate at clean desks set in rows.

I visited the loud factories the place the machines had been made

that might drive ever ahead towards the target.

I noticed the forest diminished to stumps and gullies;

I noticed the poisoned river–the mountain solid into the valley;

I got here to the town that no one acknowledged as a result of it regarded like each different metropolis.

I noticed the passages worn by the unnumbered footfalls of these

whose eyes had been mounted upon the target.

Their passing had obliterated the graves and the monuments

of those that had died in pursuit of the target

and who had way back endlessly been forgotten,

in line with the inevitable rule that those that have forgotten

overlook that they’ve forgotten.

Women and men, and youngsters now pursued the target as if no one ever had pursued it earlier than.

The races and the sexes now intermingled completely in pursuit of the target.

The once-enslaved, the once-oppressed,

had been now free to promote themselves to the very best bidder

and to enter the very best paying prisons in pursuit of the target,

which was the destruction of all enemies,

which was the destruction of all obstacles,

which was to clear the best way to victory,

which was to clear the best way to promotion,

to salvation,

to progress,

to the finished sale,

to the signature on the contract,

which was to clear the best way to self-realization, to self-creation,

from which no one who ever wished to go dwelling would ever get there now,

for each remembered place had been displaced;

each love unloved,

each vow unsworn,

each phrase unmeant

to make method for the passage of the gang of the individuated,

the autonomous, the self-actuated, the homeless with their many eyes

opened towards the target which they didn’t but understand within the far distance,

having by no means identified the place they had been going,

having by no means identified the place they got here from.

From ‘A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems’ 1979-1997, by Wendell Berry, Counterpoint, 1998

‘The Goal’ As Learn By Wendell Berry