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
dream matter save somewhere
When I dream at night, they save a place for me, no matter how small, somewhere by the fire.
arrows cloak hidden name touch william
My name is William Tell: when little oppressions touch me arrows hidden in my cloak whisper, "Ready, ready.
contend evidence living
I am a person a dictionary-maker has to contend with. I am a living evidence in the development of language.
comforts goes good great lost sleep wall
A great snug wall goes around everything, has always been there, will always remain. It is a good world to be lost in. It comforts you. It is all right. And you sleep.
owl ears sound
An owl sound wandered along the road with me. I didn't hear it--I breathed it into my ears.
legends way world
So, the world happens twice-- once what we see it as; second it legends itself deep, the way it is.
ownership glances
The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.
snow quality done
It is this impulse to change the quality of experience that I recognize as central to creation. . . . Out of all that could be done, you choose one thing. What that one thing is, nothing else can tell you--you come at it over unmarked snow.
moving teaching writing
A student brings something to discuss, saying, "I don't know whether this is really good, or whether I should throw it in the wastebasket." The assumption is that one or the other choice is the right move. No. Almost everything we say or think or do - or write - comes in that spacious human area bounded by something this side of the sublime and something above the unforgivable.
dream fire matter save somewhere
When I dream at night, they save a place for me,no matter how small, somewhere by the fire.