The Sunday Salon: Poetry #2 - William Stafford

I have confessed here before that I'm not much of a poetry reader. I love words and word play and rhythmic lyrical phrasing; I write songs and I even write poetry. So I'm puzzled about why I struggle so with reading it. Perhaps it's because I didn't grow up in a house filled with poetry, and I don't recall it being much a part of my early education (except the poem about squishing the fly on the windowsill and a few bawdy limericks). I can love a good poem by Mary Oliver or Lucille Clifton; I enjoy some poetry readings; but it's rare for me to willingly sit down with a book of poetry and stick with it.

Here in Portland we had a local treasure, William Stafford, poet, teacher, peace activist. He died in 1993 and left a huge legacy of poetry and essays, and his best work: a son, Kim Stafford, who is following in his father's large footsteps and creating a wonderful body of poetry in his own right. He also teaches locally and maintains the archive of his father's work.

Here's a sample of Wm. Stafford's work:

Spirit of Place: Great Blue Heron

Out of their loneliness for each other
two reeds, or maybe two shadows, lurch
forward and become suddenly a life
lifted from dawn or the rain. It is
the wilderness come back again, a lagoon
with our city reflected in its eye.
We live by faith in such presences.

It is a test for us, that thin
but real, undulating figure that promises,
"If you keep faith I will exist
at the edge, where your vision joins
the sunlight and the rain: heads in the light,
feet that go down in the mud where the truth is."

(© 1987; from Even in Quiet Places, 1996)

Today I'm reading The Long Sigh the Wind Makes, a collection of Stafford's poems published in 1991, and some essays from his book Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation. I also have a DVD , William Stafford, Life and Poems, one part of which has him deconstructing a few of his own poems. Wonderful stuff. My plan is to get to know the Staffords' work (father and son) better this year - who knows, maybe I'll get an opportunity to take a workshop with Kim.

Other reading news:

• I zipped through The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street - a sweet little memoir by Helene Hanff who, after her 20 year overseas correspondence with a London bookseller (detailed in 84, Charing Cross Road), finally gets to visit the city of her dreams.
  
• I finished The Gathering (Anne Enright), a book that was difficult for me to get through and made me wonder why it was the Man Booker prize winner. Literary judges often have very different taste than I do!
  
• I'm now into Small Island by Andrea Levy, which is a much more enjoyable read.
• Almost embarrassed to say that I'm still reading War and Peace - but I am past the 1,000th page! Maybe by next Sunday I'll declare it finished.