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
serious crafts jokes
A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.
ownership glances
The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.
beach ocean believe
Even the upper end of the river believes in the ocean.
process found new-things
A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them.
enhancement literature flow
Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.
breathing world right-now
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now?
decision life-is distraction
Once you decide to do right, life is easy, there are no distractions.
breathe rhythm
Anyone who breathes is in the rhythm business.
getting-lost madness where-you-are
The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found.
owl ears sound
An owl sound wandered along the road with me. I didn't hear it--I breathed it into my ears.
legends way world
So, the world happens twice-- once what we see it as; second it legends itself deep, the way it is.
character compassion people
Security of character would be like a compass, you know? Other people may say that this way is north, or this way might be north. But the compass just says -- north. That's what we count on.
writing mind pieces
A student comes to me with a piece of writing, holds it out, says, 'Is this good?' A whole sequence of emergencies goes off in my mind. That's not a question to ask anyone but yourself.
dream writing discovery
Writing itself is one of the great, free human activities. There is scope for individuality, and elation, and discovery. In writing, for the person who follows with trust and forgiveness what occurs to him, the world remains always ready and deep, an inexhaustible environment, with the combined vividness of an actuality and flexibility of a dream. Working back and forth between experience and thought, writers have more than space and time can offer. They have the whole unexplored realm of human vision.