To engage meaningfully in a hyper-connected, always-on ecosystem, it’s important to make space in your daily rhythm for deep thought and deep work. Only when we tend to the source of our stream and create margins in the midst of our routine can we bring our ideas and energies to a world that requires our full attention.

Wendell Berry, a farmer and poet, writes eloquently about the importance of silence and withdrawal to the creation of poetry. His poem “How to Be a Poet (to remind myself)” charts a path for deep thought and engagement. I love Wendell’s reading of it:

i
Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.

ii

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

iii

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

Thanks BrainPickings and OnBeing for sharing.