The Mad Farmer Secedes from the Union

The Mad Farmer, Flying the Flag of

Rough Branch, Secedes from the Union

wendell berry



From the union of power and money,

from the union of power and secrecy,

from the union of government and art,

from the union of science and money,

from the union of ambition and ignorance,

from the union of genius and war,

from the union of outer space and inner vacuity,

the Mad Farmer walks quietly away.



There is only one of him, but he goes.

He returns to the small country he calls home,

his own nation small enough to walk across.

He goes shadowy into the local woods,

and brightly into the local meadows and croplands.

He goes to the care of neighbors,

he goes into the care of neighbors.

He goes to the potluck supper, a dish

from each house for the hunger of every house.

He goes into the quiet of early mornings

of days when he is not going anywhere.



Calling his neighbors together into the sanctity

of their lives separate and together

in the one life of their commonwealth and home,

in their own nation small enough for a story

or song to travel across in an hour, he cries:



Come all ye conservatives and liberals

who want to conserve the good things and be free,

come away from the merchants of big answers,

whose hands are metalled with power;

from the union of anywhere and everywhere

by the purchase of everything from everybody at the lowest price

and the sale of anything to anybody at the highest price;

from the union of work and debt, work and despair;

from the wage-slavery of the helplessly well-employed.



From the union of self-gratification and self-annihilation,

secede into care for one another

and for the good gifts of Heaven and Earth.



Come into the life of the body, the one body

granted to you in all the history of time.

Come into the body's economy, its daily work,

and its replenishment at mealtimes and at night.

Come into the body's thanksgiving, when it knows

and acknowledges itself a living soul.

Come into the dance of the community, joined

in a circle, hand in hand, the dance of the eternal

love of women and men for one another

and of neighbors and friends for one another.



Always disappearing, always returning,

calling his neighbors to return, to think again

of the care of flocks and herds, of gardens

and fields, of woodlots and forests and the uncut groves,

calling them separately and together, calling and calling,

he goes forever toward the long restful evening

and the croak of the night heron over the river at dark.

Last Edited by Riker on 03/19/2009 12:34 PM