This rich volume reflects the development of Berrys poetic sensibility.. The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry gathers one hundred poems written between 1957 and 1996. Chosen by the author, these pieces have been selected from each of nine previously published collections. The rich work in this volume reflects the development of Berrys poetic sensibility over four decades. Focusing on themes that have occupied his work for years--land and nature, family and community, tradition as the groundwork for life and culture-- The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry celebrates the broad range of this vital and transforming poet. In elegy, subversive call, song, or meditation, Wendell Berrys clear yet complex vision of what it means to be human is rare in American poetry. In these one hundred poems, drawn from nine previous collections, Berrys play of sound and syntax moves in our minds like something just remembered, and remains with us like an afterimage on the eye. He loves the pleasure of daily work outdoors, and his love of family and community is centered in a place on earth.As an activist and farmer, Berrys poems are balanced by reverence. With care and fidelity, Berrys recurring themes luminesce into examples of faith, fortitude, and action. In these scattershot days of spins and polls, E-mails and answering machines, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry is a contemplative and inspiring hymn to life.