In elegy, subversive call, song or meditation, Wendell Berry's 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, Berry's 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, Berry's poems are balanced by reverence. With care and fidelity, Berry's 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.