Laws of Nature

Barn Swallow

The Law That Marries All Things

1.
The cloud is free only
to go with the wind.

The rain is free only
in falling.

The water is free only
in its gathering together,

in its downward courses,
in its rising into air.

2.
In law is rest
if you love the law,
if you enter, singing, into it
as water in its descent.

3.
Or song is truest law,
and you must enter singing;
it has no other entrance.

It is the great chorus
of parts. The only outlawry
is in division.

4.
Whatever is singing
is found, awaiting the return
of whatever is lost.

5.
Meet us in the air
over the water,
sing the swallows

Meet me, meet me,
the redbird sings,
here here here here.

Wendell Berry

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Thanks to JJ Cadiz for the photo of the barn swallow.

Tags: Barn Swallows, Swallows, Wendell Berry