November 27, 2011

It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Wendell Barry, “Poetry and Marriage: The Use of Old Forms,” 1982, from Standing by Words: Essays (Saw this quote in my Tumblr feed this morning, broken up into verse, and titled “The Real Work.” The quote, like most quotes, is much, much richer in context.)

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