A select writer with his own tag on this blog, he was a rare triple threat in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. I love his novels Hannah Coulter and Jayber Crow as much as Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition, his advocacy for the preservation of tangibility, his documentary, and his many poems—like “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” and “A Homecoming”, which we had read during our wedding ceremony:
One faith is bondage. Two are free.
In the trust of old love,
cultivation shows a dark
graceful wilderness at its heart.
Wild in that wilderness, we roam
the distances of our faith,
safe beyond the bounds of what we know.
O love, open.
Show me my country.
Take me home.
Do yourself a favor and dive into any of it.
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