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Wendell Berry’s “The Guest” · The Daily Poem

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by Wendell Berry.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's called The Guest.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is from one of Berry's earliest collections, published in 1971.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a fraught and honest wrestling with the parable of the Good Samaritan and
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  SPEAKER_00: the Golden Rule, the law of xenos, or hospitality.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some of the most striking moments in this poem are when he The speaker ponders
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  SPEAKER_00: whether the unfortunate man has been trapped by sad circumstances or whether
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  SPEAKER_00: the Charitable man,
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  SPEAKER_00: the fortunate man,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Samaritan,
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  SPEAKER_00: has himself been trapped or snared in some way by the obligation that
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  SPEAKER_00: the unfortunate man now represents.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then near the end,
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  SPEAKER_00: when he looks directly and honestly at what we call charity
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  SPEAKER_00: and what it sometimes is instead, here's the poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Guest.
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  SPEAKER_00: Washed into the doorway by the wake of the traffic,
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  SPEAKER_00: he wears humanity like a third-hand shirt,
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  SPEAKER_00: blackened with enough of Manhattan's dirt to sprout a tree or poison one.
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  SPEAKER_00: His empty hand has led him where he has come to,
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  SPEAKER_00: our differences claim us, he holds out his hand in need of all that's mine.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so we're joined,
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  SPEAKER_00: as deep as son and father,
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  SPEAKER_00: his life is offered me to choose, Shall I begin servitude to him?
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  SPEAKER_00: Let this cup pass.
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  SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
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  SPEAKER_00: But charity must suppose,
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  SPEAKER_00: knowing no better,
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  SPEAKER_00: that this is a man fallen among thieves,
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  SPEAKER_00: or come to this strait by no fault,
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  SPEAKER_00: that our difference is not a judgment,
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  SPEAKER_00: though I can afford to eat and am made his judge.
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  SPEAKER_00: I am, I nearly believe,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Samaritan who fell into the ambush of his heart on the way to another place,
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  SPEAKER_00: My stranger waits,
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  SPEAKER_00: his hand held out like something to read,
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  SPEAKER_00: as though its emptiness is an accomplishment.
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  SPEAKER_00: I give him a smoke and the price of a meal, no more.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not sufficient kindness or believable sham.
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  SPEAKER_00: I paid him to remain strange to my threshold and table,
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  SPEAKER_00: to permit me to forget him, knowing I won't.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's the guest of my knowing, though not asked.
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  SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back tomorrow with another subscriber episode and here on the main channel on Friday.
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  SPEAKER_00: You can find more poetry at dailypoempod.substack.com
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  SPEAKER_00: where you can also join conversations about each day's poem and subscribe and become
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  SPEAKER_00: a supporter of the show if you're not already.
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  SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios, I'm Sean Johnson wishing you happy reading.