William Stafford Quotes - Page 2

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Giving Language Waiting Writing

Language can do what it can’t say.

William Stafford

Language, Can Do

William Stafford, Paul Merchant, Vincent Wixon (1998). “Crossing unmarked snow: further views on the writer's vocation”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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The root and the flower have to trust each other. If the root does not trust, the plant won't blossom.

William Stafford

Flower, Roots, Doe

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Ask Me Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made. Ask me whether what I have done is my life. Others have come in their slow way into my thought, and some have tried to help or to hurt: ask me what difference their strongest love or hate has made. I will listen to what you say. You and I can turn and look at the silent river and wait. We know the current is there, hidden; and there are comings and goings from miles away that hold the stillness exactly before us. What the river says, that is what I say.

William Stafford

Hurt, Hate, Mistake

William Stafford (2014). “Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford”, p.19, Macmillan

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What you have to do as a writer is . . . write day in and day out no matter what happens.

William Stafford

Writing, Matter, No Matter What

William Stafford, Paul Merchant, Vincent Wixon (2003). “The answers are inside the mountains: meditations on the writing life”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.

William Stafford

Attention, Speech

William Stafford, Kim Robert Stafford (2003). “Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War”, p.34, Milkweed Editions

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It's love,' they say. You touch the right one and a whole half of the universe wakes up, a new half.

William Stafford

Wake Up, Half, Whole

William Stafford (2014). “Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford”, p.119, Macmillan

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You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self.

William Stafford

Exercise, Self, Quirky

William Stafford (1986). “You must revise your life”, University of Michigan Press

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Let the bucket of memory down into the well, bring it up. Cool, cool minutes. No one stirring, no plans. Just being there.

William Stafford

Memories, Buckets, Just Being

William Stafford (2014). “Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford”, p.98, Macmillan

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I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don't have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.

William Stafford

Rivers, Topics, Kind

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Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now?

William Stafford

Breathing, World, Right Now

William Stafford (1998). “The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems”, Graywolf Press

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You can lie at a banquet but you have to be honest in the kitchen.

William Stafford

Lying, Kitchen, Honest

William Stafford, Paul Merchant, Vincent Wixon (1998). “Crossing unmarked snow: further views on the writer's vocation”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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It is as if the ordinary language we use every day has a hidden set of signals, a kind of secret code.

William Stafford

Secret, Ordinary, Use

William Stafford, Paul Merchant, Vincent Wixon (1998). “Crossing unmarked snow: further views on the writer's vocation”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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Keep a journal, and don't assume that your work has to accomplish anything worthy: artists and peace-workers are in it for the long haul, and not to be judged by immediate results.

William Stafford

Artist, Long, Assuming

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The earth says have a place, be what that place
requires; hear the sound the birds imply
and see as deep as ridges go behind
each other.

William Stafford

Bird, Sound, Earth

William Stafford, Paul Merchant, Vincent Wixon (2003). “The answers are inside the mountains: meditations on the writing life”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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If you can say it, it begins to exist.

William Stafford

Ifs

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My question is "when did other people give up the idea of being a poet?" You know, when we are kids we make up things, we write, and for me the puzzle is not that some people are still writing, the real question is why did the other people stop?

William Stafford

Giving Up, Real, Kids

William Stafford (1978). “Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation”

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When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere.

William Stafford

Journey, Snakes, Decided

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Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.

William Stafford

Literature, Flow, Enhancement

William Stafford (1978). “Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation”

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The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found.

William Stafford

Getting Lost, Madness, Found

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They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, "Who are you really, wanderer?"-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: "Maybe I'm a king.

William Stafford

Running, Kings, Dark

William Stafford (1977). “Stories that could be true: new and collected poems”, HarperCollins Publishers

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Once you decide to do right, life is easy, there are no distractions.

William Stafford

Decision, Life Is, Distraction

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All still when summer is over stand shocks in the field, nothing left to whisper, not even good-bye, to the wind. After summer was over we knew winter would come: we knew silence would wait, tall, patient calm.

William Stafford

Summer, Winter, Wind

William Stafford (1977). “Stories that could be true: new and collected poems”, HarperCollins Publishers

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When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation.

William Stafford

World, Salvation, Glances

William Stafford (1986). “You must revise your life”, University of Michigan Press

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A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.

William Stafford

Crafts, Serious, Jokes

William Stafford (1978). “Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer's Vocation”

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So, the world happens twice--
once what we see it as;
second it legends itself
deep, the way it is.

William Stafford

World, Legends, Way

William Stafford (2014). “Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford”, p.87, Macmillan

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Born: January 17, 1914
Died: August 28, 1993
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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