The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems

by Stafford

• ISBN13: 9781555972691
• ISBN10: 1555972691
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-01
• Publisher: Graywolf Press

Summary

So, the world happens twice-- once what we see it as; second it legends itself deep, the way it is. William Stafford filled his life and ours with poetry of challenge and consolation.The Way It Isgathers unpublished poems from his last year, including the poem he wrote the day he died, as well as an essential selection of works from throughout his career. An editorial team including his son Kim Stafford, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Robert Bly collaborated on shaping this book of Stafford's life in poetry. The poems inThe Way It Isencompass Stafford's rugged domesticity, the political edge of his irony, and his brave starings off into emptiness. What emerges here is Stafford's faith in language and the soul, those things that form the base for his artistic gyroscope. This collection reveals the depth and breadth of a poet for whom the art was to make a life richly lived.

Author Biography

Born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1914, William Stafford was one of our most prolific and celebrated poets. He was a witness for peace, and for honesty, recognizing in his writing that "justice will take us millions of intricate moves." Author of over fifty books, and recipient of the National Book Award for Traveling through the Dark, Stafford was a professor at Lewis & Clark College, and a traveling teacher throughout the world. As a conscientious objector during World War II, he began his unswerving habit of writing before dawn each day, and his habitual generosity to other writers and readers. After serving as consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970, he was named Oregon's Poet Laureate in 1975. He died at his home in Oregon in 1993.

Table of Contents

Frontispiece: "Are you Mr. William Stafford?"
Preface
Naomi Shihab Nye
The Way It Is: NEW POEMS	3	(46)
Sometimes I Breathe (1992)	3	(21)
Sky	3	(1)
One Night	4	(1)
Third Street	4	(1)
How the Real Bible Is Written	5	(1)
Easter Morning	6	(1)
Fixers	6	(1)
You and Art	7	(1)
Walking the Borders	7	(1)
Something That Happens Right Now	8	(1)
Clash	8	(1)
Learning	9	(1)
Entering History	10	(1)
Not in the Headlines	10	(1)
One Evening	11	(1)
Right to Die	12	(1)
Toward the End	12	(1)
Whispered in Winter	13	(1)
Old Glory	14	(1)
Explaining the Big One	14	(1)
At the Grave of My Brother: Bomber Pilot	15	(1)
A Memorial: Son Bret	16	(1)
Annals of Tai Chi: "Push Hands"	16	(1)
Sure You Do	17	(1)
The Magic Mountain	17	(1)
For a Daughter Gone Away	18	(1)
Living Statues	19	(1)
Put These in Your Pipe	20	(1)
Meditation in the Waiting Room	20	(1)
Choosing a Dog	21	(1)
Identities	22	(1)
Assuming Control	22	(1)
A Few Snorts from a Wild One	23	(1)
There's a Thread You Follow (Poems written in 1993)	24	(25)
The Last Class	24	(1)
Putting the Sonnet to Work	24	(1)
Charades	25	(1)
Cro-Magnon	26	(1)
Notes for the Program	26	(1)
Style	26	(1)
Evidence	27	(1)
Retirement	28	(1)
Inscribed on a Prayer Wheel and Spun	28	(1)
Writing It Down	29	(1)
Mein Kampf	30	(1)
Things That Hurt Me--	30	(1)
Sayings of the Blind	31	(1)
Real People	32	(1)
Just Thinking	32	(1)
No Praise, No Blame	33	(1)
Afterwards	33	(1)
Where We Are	34	(1)
Slow News from Our Place	34	(1)
Emily, This Place, and You	35	(1)
Quo Vadis	36	(1)
"It's heavy to drag, this big sack..."	36	(1)
Crossing Our Campground	37	(1)
Godiva County, Montana	37	(1)
Jeremiah at Miminagish	38	(1)
Hunger	38	(1)
Ways to Live	39	(1)
1. India
2. Having It Be Tomorrow
3. Being Nice and Old
4. Good Ways to Live
Living on the Plains [1993]	40	(1)
Our Way Those Days before These Days	41	(1)
Haycutters	42	(1)
The Way It Is	42	(1)
November	42	(1)
Big Bang	43	(1)
Joe's Corner	43	(1)
Home State	44	(1)
"At noon comes the lift..."	44	(1)
You Reading This, Be Ready	45	(1)
At Fourth and Main in Liberal, Kansas, 1932	45	(1)
"Are you Mr. William Stafford?"	46	(3)
Stories That Could Be True	49	(100)
FROM Stories That Could Be True (1977)	49	(11)
Our Story	49	(1)
A Story That Could Be True	49	(1)
Wovoka's Witness	50	(1)
Things in the Wild Need Salt	51	(1)
Accountability	52	(1)
A Message from the Wanderer	52	(1)
At the Playground	53	(1)
Artist, Come Home	54	(1)
Wild Horse Lore	54	(1)
On a Church Lawn	55	(1)
The Little Girl by the Fence at School	55	(1)
Growing Up	55	(1)
At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border	56	(1)
Ask Me	56	(1)
A Bird inside a Box	57	(1)
The Moment Again	57	(1)
A Bridge Begins in the Trees	58	(1)
Peace Walk	59	(1)
Whispered into the Ground	59	(1)
FROM West of Your City (1960)	60	(17)
Midwest	60	(1)
One Home	60	(1)
Ceremony	61	(1)
In the Deep Channel	62	(1)
Circle of Breath	62	(1)
Listening	63	(1)
A Visit Home	63	(1)
The Farm on the Great Plains	64	(1)
Walking West	65	(1)
Our People	65	(1)
In the Oregon Country	66	(1)
Weather Report	66	(1)
Vacation	67	(1)
At the Bomb Testing Site	67	(1)
The Fish Counter at Bonneville	68	(1)
Watching the Jet Planes Dive	68	(1)
The Move to California	69	(3)
1. The Summons in Indiana
2. Glimpsed on the Way
3. At the Summit
4. Springs near Hagerman
5. Along Highway 40
6. Written on the Stub of the First Paycheck
Bi-Focal	72	(1)
Outside	73	(1)
Boom Town	73	(1)
Level Light	74	(1)
Ice-Fishing	74	(1)
The Well Rising	75	(1)
A Ritual to Read to Each Other	75	(1)
Connections	76	(1)
Sayings from the Northern Ice	76	(1)
FROM Traveling through the Dark (1962)	77	(26)
Traveling through the Dark	77	(1)
In Medias Res	78	(1)
Elegy	78	(2)
A Stared Story	80	(1)
Thinking for Berky	80	(1)
With My Crowbar Key	81	(1)
Parentage	82	(1)
The Research Team in the Mountains	82	(1)
Prairie Town	83	(1)
The Old Hamer Place	84	(1)
The Tillamook Burn	84	(1)
On Quitting a Little College	85	(1)
Reporting Back	86	(1)
In Response to a Question	86	(1)
B.C.	87	(1)
Lit Instructor	87	(1)
The Star in the Hills	88	(1)
Universe Is One Place	88	(1)
In the Night Desert	89	(1)
Before the Big Storm	89	(1)
At Liberty School	90	(1)
Lake Chelan	91	(1)
Fall Journey	91	(1)
Late at Night	92	(1)
A Dedication	92	(1)
"The Lyf So Short..."	93	(1)
At the Old Place	94	(1)
Adults Only	94	(1)
Glances	95	(1)
Fall Wind	95	(1)
As Pippa Lilted	95	(1)
The Trip	96	(1)
Representing Far Places	96	(1)
In Fear and Valor	97	(1)
At Cove on the Crooked River	97	(1)
Looking for Someone	98	(1)
Found in a Storm	99	(1)
Returned to Say	99	(1)
In Dear Detail, by Ideal Light	100	(1)
The Wanderer Awaiting Preferment	101	(1)
Vocation	102	(1)
FROM The Rescued Year (1966)	103	(17)
Some Shadows	103	(1)
My Father: October 1942	104	(1)
Back Home	104	(1)
Across Kansas	105	(1)
A Family Turn	105	(1)
Fifteen	106	(1)
Homecoming	107	(1)
The Rescued Year	107	(3)
Judgments	110	(1)
Aunt Mabel	111	(1)
Our City Is Guarded by Automatic Rockets	111	(1)
Believer	112	(1)
At the Chairman's Housewarming	113	(1)
The Epitaph Ending in And	114	(1)
Keepsakes	114	(1)
At This Point on the Page	115	(1)
At the Fair	115	(1)
Passing Remark	116	(1)
At the Klamath Berry Festival	116	(1)
The Concealment: Ishi, the Last Wild Indian	117	(1)
Near	117	(1)
Recoil	118	(1)
The Animal That Drank Up Sound	118	(2)
FROM Allegiances (1970)	120	(11)
With Kit, Age 7, at the Beach	120	(1)
Bess	120	(1)
Holcomb, Kansas	121	(1)
A Gesture toward an Unfound Renaissance	122	(1)
Reaching Out to turn On a Light	122	(1)
At the Grave of My Brother	123	(1)
Father's Voice	123	(1)
A Sound from the Earth	124	(1)
Stories from Kansas	124	(1)
Things That Happen	125	(1)
Vacation Trip	126	(1)
Note	126	(1)
Religion Back Home	126	(1)
Any Time	127	(1)
At Our House	128	(1)
Allegiances	128	(1)
Earth Dweller	129	(1)
A Walk in the Country	130	(1)
So Long	131	(1)
Someday, Maybe (1973)	131	(18)
An Introduction to Some Poems	131	(1)
Thirteenth and Pennsylvania	132	(1)
New Letters from Thomas Jefferson	133	(1)
Waking at 3 A.M.	134	(1)
A Little Gift	135	(1)
Existences	135	(1)
Father and Son	136	(1)
Indian Caves in the Dry Country	136	(1)
People of the South Wind	136	(1)
Bring the North	137	(1)
Report to Crazy Horse	138	(2)
Deer Stolen	140	(1)
The Little Ways That Encourage Good Fortune	141	(1)
The Swerve	141	(1)
Report from a Far Place	142	(1)
Freedom	142	(1)
People Who Went By in Winter	143	(1)
Witness	144	(1)
A Song in the Manner of Flannery O'Connor	144	(1)
Juncos	145	(4)
Why the Sun Comes Up	149	(38)
FROM Smoke's Way (1983)	149	(6)
Storm Warning	149	(1)
R(X) Creative Writing: Identity	149	(1)
Survival	150	(1)
The Coyote in the Zoo	150	(1)
The Indian Cave Jerry Ramsey Found	151	(1)
Meditation	151	(1)
West of Here	151	(1)
Many Things Are Hidden by the Light	152	(1)
Cave Painting	152	(1)
By the Deschutes Shore	153	(1)
Gutters of Jackson: Cache Street North	153	(1)
Assurance	153	(1)
Looking for You	154	(1)
Smoke	154	(1)
FROM My Name Is William Tell (1992)	155	(11)
My Name Is William Tell	155	(1)
At Lascaux	155	(1)
They Carved an Animal	156	(1)
Coyote	156	(1)
Inheriting the Earth: Quail	157	(1)
Roll Call	157	(1)
.38	158	(1)
Together Again	158	(1)
Stereopticon	159	(1)
Why I Am a Poet	159	(1)
Atwater Kent	160	(1)
That Year	160	(1)
In Hurricane Canyon	161	(1)
Widow	161	(1)
Vocatus atque Non Vocatus	162	(1)
One Man	163	(1)
At Fort Worden: Calling Names	163	(1)
Dropout	164	(1)
Some Remarks When Richard Hugo Came	164	(1)
A Wind from a Wing	165	(1)
The Gift	165	(1)
FROM Even in Quiet Places (1996)	166	(11)
History Display	166	(1)
Spirit of Place: Great Blue Heron	167	(1)
Over in Montana	167	(1)
A Farewell, Age Ten	168	(1)
Old Prof	168	(1)
Poetry	169	(1)
In The Book	169	(1)
Grace Abounding	170	(1)
Men	171	(1)
Distractions	171	(1)
In the All-Verbs Navaho World	172	(1)
Malheur before Dawn	172	(1)
For Our Party Last Night	173	(1)
Watching Sandhill Cranes	173	(1)
Freedom of Expression	174	(1)
Cottonwood	174	(1)
Influential Writers	175	(1)
Is This Feeling about the West Real?	175	(1)
What Gets Away	176	(1)
Selections from other volumes (1980-93)	177	(10)
Why the Sun Comes Up	177	(1)
Through the Junipers	177	(1)
Address to the Senior Class	178	(1)
Notice What This Poem Is Not Doing	178	(1)
Learning, Any Time	179	(1)
It Still Happens Now	180	(1)
Key of C--An Interlude for Marvin	180	(1)
Before It Burned Over: A Sioux Grass Chant	181	(1)
Objector	181	(1)
Living on the Plains [1990]	182	(1)
American Gothic	182	(1)
Biography	183	(1)
For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid	183	(1)
Over the Mountains	184	(3)
How These Words Happened	187
FROM A Glass Face in the Rain (1982)	187	(21)
How It Began	187	(1)
Tuned In Late One Night	187	(1)
Friends	188	(1)
Looking across the River	188	(1)
Our Cave	189	(1)
Not Very Loud	190	(1)
Maybe	190	(1)
How It Is	191	(1)
In a Corner	191	(1)
Remembering	192	(1)
A Glass Face in the Rain	192	(1)
Yellow Cars	193	(1)
My Life	193	(1)
A Message from Space	194	(1)
After Arguing against the Contention That Art Must Come from Discontent	194	(1)
A Course in Creative Writing	195	(1)
Things I Learned Last Week	195	(1)
Incident	196	(1)
Fiction	197	(1)
Our Kind	197	(1)
A Catechism	198	(1)
School Days	198	(1)
We Interrupt to Bring You	199	(1)
My Mother Was a Soldier	200	(1)
When You Go Anywhere	200	(1)
Once in the 40s	201	(1)
Around You, Your House	201	(1)
Ruby Was Her Name	202	(1)
Letting You Go	202	(1)
Troubleshooting	203	(1)
Remembering Brother Bob	203	(1)
Places with Meaning	204	(1)
With Neighbors One Afternoon	205	(1)
A Journey	205	(1)
Friends, Farewell	206	(1)
If I Could Be Like Wallace Stevens	206	(1)
Salvaged Parts	207	(1)
One Time	207	(1)
Pegleg Lookout	208	(1)
FROM An Oregon Message (1987)	208	(23)
Keeping a Journal	208	(1)
First Grade	209	(1)
A Life, a Ritual	209	(1)
Surrounded by Mountains	210	(1)
Little Rooms	210	(1)
The Big House	211	(1)
Next Time	211	(1)
Burning a Book	212	(1)
Thinking about Being Called Simple by a Critic	213	(1)
Serving with Gideon	213	(1)
Ground Zero [December 1982]	214	(1)
Looking for Gold	214	(1)
Stillborn	215	(1)
Honeysuckle	215	(1)
School Play	216	(1)
A Ceremony: Doing the Needful	216	(1)
For the Unknown Enemy	217	(1)
Being an American	217	(1)
Over the North Jetty	218	(1)
Waiting in Line	218	(1)
An Oregon Message	219	(1)
Why I Am Happy	220	(1)
Final Exam: American Renaissance	220	(1)
Purifying the Language of the Tribe	221	(1)
Starting with Little Things	221	(1)
Ultimate Problems	222	(1)
When I Met My Muse	222	(1)
Ghalib Decides to Be Reticent	223	(1)
The Sparkle Depends on Flaws in the Diamond	223	(1)
Ode to Garlic	224	(1)
Turn Over Your Hand	224	(1)
1932	225	(1)
1940	225	(1)
108 East Nineteenth	226	(1)
Mother's Day	226	(1)
A Memorial for My Mother	227	(1)
How It Is with Family	228	(1)
Saint Matthew and All	228	(1)
Run before Dawn	229	(1)
By a River in the Osage Country	229	(1)
Arrival	230	(1)
FROM Passwords (1991)	231
Dedications / Pledges / Commitments	231	(1)
Story Time	231	(1)
The Way I Write	232	(1)
Reading with Little Sister: A Recollection	233	(1)
The Day Millicent Found the World	233	(1)
News Every Day	234	(1)
An Afternoon in the Stacks	235	(1)
Paso por Aqui	235	(1)
Old Blue	236	(1)
An Archival Print	236	(1)
The Trouble with Reading	237	(1)
The Dream of Now	237	(1)
Atavism	238	(1)
Trying to Tell It	239	(1)
Remarks on My Character	239	(1)
You Don't Know the End	240	(1)
Different Things	241	(1)
The Light by the Barn	241	(1)
Five A.M.	242	(1)
Climbing along the River	242	(1)
Ground Zero [June 1982]	243	(1)
Network	243	(1)
For a Lost Child	244	(1)
Consolations	244	(1)
Security	245	(1)
Long Distance	245	(2)
Your Life	247	(1)
Yes	247	(1)
What's in My Journal	248	(1)
Merci Beaucoup	248	(1)
Young	249	(1)
Life Work	250	(1)
In Camp	250	(1)
Something to Declare	251	(1)
How These Words Happened	251	(1)
The Size of a Fist	252	(1)
Vita	252
Editing This Book: An Afterword
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines