William Stafford
William Stafford
Prolific American poet and 1970 U.S. Poet Laureate who won the National Book Award for Traveling Through the Dark. His numerous other works include In the Clock of Reason, Brother Wind, Passwords, and Wyoming Circuit.
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth17 January 1914
CountryUnited States of America
forward life quiet wherever
All right. I listen. My life sinks a little farther, for the pity; from now on I know it with them. We'll take a stand, wherever the end is. We go forward by this quiet sharing, they one way, I another. I am their promise: no one else is going to know.
arrange author prayer time trying
And all the time it's your own story, even when you think -- "It's all just made up, a trick. What is the author trying to do?" Reader, we are in such a story: all of this is trying to arrange a kind of prayer for you. Pray for me.
war people soldier
Some people are blinded by their experience. Soldiers know how important war is. Owners of slaves learn every day how inferior subject peoples are.
world purpose birth
You were aimed from birth: you will never be alone... The whole wide world pours down.
running kings dark
They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, "Who are you really, wanderer?"-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: "Maybe I'm a king.
journey snakes decided
When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.
writing feelings progress
I have this feeling of wending my way or plundering through a mysterious jungle of possibilities when I am writing. This jungle has not been explored by previous writers. It never will be explored. It's endlessly varying as we progress through the experience of time. These words that occur to me come out of my relation to the language which is developing even as I am using it.
ocean sea shapes
The ocean and I have many pebbles To find and wash off and roll into shape.
secret use ordinary
It is as if the ordinary language we use every day has a hidden set of signals, a kind of secret code.
exercise self quirky
You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self.
world reason knows
And the things you know before you hear them; these are you and the reason you are in the world.
spiritual journey people
People wander about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread.
dog pavlov
I'll be Pavlov, you be the dog.
giving darkness signals
The signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-/should be clear/the darkness around us is deep.