We cannot know the whole truth, which belongs to God alone, but our task nevertheless is to seek to know what is true. And if we offend gravely enough against what we know to be true, as by failing badly enough to deal affectionately and responsibly with our land and our neighbors, truth will retaliate with ugliness, poverty, and disease.

Given: New Poems. Wind Publications 2005. 2004.

He is also an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers a recipient of The National Humanities Medal and the Jefferson Lecturer for 2012. He is a prolific author of novels short stories poems and essays. Wendell Berry (born August 5 1934) is an American man of letters academic cultural and economic critic and farmer.