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Tag Archives: William Stafford
Best of 2021: Book Prescriptions
As we finish this difficult year, I’m wondering how I can thank my readers for sticking with me. Blogs can’t offer hugs, a place to go scream, a few extra hours of sleep, or stiff drinks. However, I can prescribe … Continue reading
“We must accustom ourselves to talking without orating, and to writing without achieving Paradise Lost.”
It’s clear to me that times like these – frigid temperatures, fights in Washington, and February flatness — call for help from William Stafford. Why? He is a poet who knows what to do when times are hard. Press on, … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged Lower your standards, National Book Award for Poetry, Press on, Robert Bly, William Stafford
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“Your job is to find what the world is trying to be.”
This is the last line from the poem “Vocation” by one of my favorite poets, William Stafford. He was an advocate of the process of discovery. In Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, he writes, “A writer is not so much someone … Continue reading
Some time when the river is ice ask me what mistakes I have made.
This is the first line from a well-loved poem by William Stafford. He often writes about things that appear to be calm, but aren’t. I think his poems are like that, too. At first glance, they don’t seem very challenging. But … Continue reading