Poetry Friday: Remembering William Stafford

Thanks to Catherine at Reading to the Core for hosting Poetry Friday. On this day in 1914, William Stafford was born.  He would later become a prolific poet and writer, the US Poet Laureate in 1970 and the Oregon Poet Laureate in 1972.  He also taught at my alma mater, Lewis and Clark College.
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Once in the 40’s is a poem From The Way It Is by William Stafford. Copyright © 1982, 1998 by the Estate of William Stafford.

In honor of him, I selected a poem, found a line, and wrote a Golden Shovel.

“and no matter how far, to be so happy again.

anticipation hangs like icicles and

the space between breaths no

longer matter

we wonder how

snowflakes drift so far

so fast attaching one by one to

winter’s bare branches. be 

still as the towhees make snow tracks so 

others find the seeds and dine happy

​anticipation hangs like icicles again


©jone rush macculloch, draft 2020