#William Stafford

[mournfulroses]

William Stafford, from Selected Poems; "For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid,"

[loveisdamnation]

you’ve still got time

tiny beautiful things, cheryl strayed | wild geese, mary oliver | anna akhmatova | tuesday, alex dimitrov | sunrise, louise glück | just thinking, william stafford | night walk, franz wright | why be happy when you could be normal?, jeanette winterson

[firstfullmoon]

William Stafford, “Assurance”

[havingapoemwithyou]

you reading this, be ready by William Stafford

[geopsych]

The Way It Is There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can’t get lost. Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old. Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread. —William Stafford

[nobeerreviews]

Let the bucket of memory down into the well, bring it up. Cool, cool minutes. No one stirring, no plans. Just being there.

-- William Stafford

(lake Zurich, Switzerland)

[apoemaday]

Any Morning

by William Stafford

Just lying on the couch and being happy. Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head. Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has so much to do in the world. People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can't monitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget. When dawn flows over the hedge you can get up and act busy. Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven left lying around, can be picked up and saved. People won't even see that you have them, they are so light and easy to hide. Later in the day you can act like the others. You can shake your head. You can frown.

[petaltexturedskies]

Now I carry those days in a tiny box wherever I go. I open the lid like this and let the light glimpse and then glance away. There is a sigh like my breath when I do this. Some days I do this again and again.

William Stafford, from "Remembering" in The Darkness Around Us Is Deep: Selected Poems

[seekingstars]

It's All Right - William Stafford

[thepeelingrenoir]

"You'll always underestimate how much innocence you have left to lose."

[lizacstuff]

Abbott Elementary cast at Ava Fest San Diego Comic Con 2024

[dk-thrive]

Now, to bring it back I stare, unfocused, into a middle distance. The speck floats, steady as a planet.

It was lost for good, I thought, the writing, but no, as the poet says and I quote, it is like a very faint star, if you look straight at it you can't see it but if you look a little to one side it is there. It's that speck, the floater in my right eye torn from the back of the retina and lodged a little to the right of my vision. The particle I kept trying to blink away and couldn't, nothing but irreversible loss, damage, until the eye became habituated, and I forgot. Now, to bring it back I stare, unfocused, into a middle distance. The speck floats, steady as a planet.

— Kinereth Gensler, "Writing Poetry. After William Stafford." (Poetry Foundation, May 1992) (via Mandy McHugh)

[drunkwhenimadethis]

It is important that awake people be awake. . . The signals we give: yes, and no, or maybe should be clear. The darkness around us is deep.

[firstfullmoon]

William Stafford, “Just Thinking,” in Ask Me

[havingapoemwithyou]

yes by William Stafford

[geopsych]

The Way It Is

There's a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn't change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can't get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.

You don't ever let go of the thread.

-William Stafford