This is an excerpt from author and farmer Wendell Berry’s “The Farm,” one of three Wendell Berry books I’m bringing to Moise, my Amish neighbor and friend when I see him next at some point this week.

The book is one long poem (literally) that captures the life of the farm more poignantly and beautifully than anything I have written or could write.

Here is one verse, about lambing:

“Dear winter’s end, your flock

Will bear their lambs, and you

Must be alert, out late

And early at the barn,

To guard against the grief

You cannot help but feel

When any young thing made

For life falters at birth

And dies. Save the best hay

To feed the suckling ewes

Shelter them in the barn

Until the grass is strong,

Then turn them out to graze

The green hillsides, good pasture

With shade and water close.

Then watch for dogs, whose sport

Will be to kill your sheep.”

-Wendell Berry, The Farm