Punk’s Reviews > Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford > Status Update

From "Just Thinking":

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

"Love the earth like a mole"

From "Malheur before Dawn":

Frogs discovered their national anthem again.
I didn't know a ditch could hold so much joy.

From "Bi-Focal":

So, the world happens twice—
once what we see it as;
second it legends itself
deep, the way it is.

Pioneer stuff from the next poem: "the shed and windmill / rear so glorious the sun shudders like a gong."

Okay, "An Oregon Message" starts out with his usual pioneer imagery then takes an abrupt turn to, like, paranoia and the moon:

This message we smuggle out in
its plain cover, to be opened
quietly: Friends everywhere—
we are alive! Those moon rockets
have missed millions of secret
places! Best wishes.

Burn this.

And "These Mornings," written in 1944, is still chillingly relevant today:

https://worldliteraturetoday.org/blog...

"you never heard so deep a sound, / moss on rock, and years."

Old mistakes come calling: no life / happens just once.

From Kim Stafford's preface: At a reading, following one of his deft, quiet offerings, a listener helplessly spoke aloud, "I could have written that." And William Stafford, looking kindly at the speaker, replied, "But you didn't." A beat of silence. "But you could write your own."