<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; " class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;" class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">The Stones</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""></span><br class=""></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">I owned a slope full of stones.</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">Like buried pianos they lay in the ground,</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">shards of old sea-ledges, stumbling blocks</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">where the earth caught and kept them</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">dark, an old music mute in them</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">that my head keeps now I have dug them out.</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">I broke them where they slugged in their dark</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">cells, and lifted them up in pieces. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">As I piled them in the light</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">I began their music. I heard their old lime</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">rouse in breath of song that has not left me.</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">I gave pain and weariness to their bearing out.</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">What bond have I made with the earth,</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">having worn myself against it? It is a fatal singing</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">I have carried with me out of that day.</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">The stones have given me music</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">that figures for me their holes in the earth</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">and their long lying in the dark. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">They have taught me the weariness that loves the ground,</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">and I must prepare a fitting silence.</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class=""></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- </span>Wendell Berry</font></div><div class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; " class=""><br class=""></span></div></body></html>