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
breathing bring gift respect
Will you ever bring a better gift for the worldthan the breathing respect that you carrywherever you go right now?
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?
contend evidence living
I am a person a dictionary-maker has to contend with. I am a living evidence in the development of language.
butterfly discovery embrace emerging experience
I embrace emerging experience.I participate in discovery.I am a butterfly.I am not a butterfly collector.I want the experience of the butterfly.
corner faint interest poetry prepared side straight worse
Poetry is the kind of thing you have to see from the corner of your eye. You can be too well prepared for poetry. A conscientious interest in it is worse than no interest at all. . . . It's 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.
art father lick
Our Father Who art in Heavencan lick their Father Who art in Heaven.
sun
Well, it was yesterday. And the sun came,WhyIt came.
sun
Well, it was yesterday. And the sun came, Why It came.
current exactly hold miles river silent stillness turn
You and I can turn and lookat the silent river and wait. We knowthe current is there, hidden; and thereare comings and goings from miles awaythat hold the stillness exactly before us.What the river says, that is what I say.
hidden name touch william
My name is William Tell:when little oppressions touch mearrows hidden in my cloakwhisper, "Ready, ready.
arrows cloak hidden name touch william
My name is William Tell: when little oppressions touch me arrows hidden in my cloak whisper, "Ready, ready.
best bring communication fragile intense language misleading people poems poetry
I think language does bring us together. Fragile and misleading as it is, it's the best communication we've got, and poetry is language at its most intense and potentially fulfilling. Poems do bring people together.
gain led pure time
We are led one thing at a time to that pure gain -- all that we lose.
american-poet
I'll be me, but I don't like it.