William Stafford

I have posted the poem A Story That Could Be True by William Stafford before, so I won't post it again. But I have to talk about it. I love finding music, art or literature through movies. It makes me feel like I didn't just waste two and some odd hours sitting in front of a screen. Mr. Stafford's poem found me this way, on a t.v. show, I don't watch anymore. A character in the show quoted the last couple of lines from the poem and I was smitten. Of course I googled it and loved the rest of the poem as well. After I copied it in my "everything" notebook I realised I needed to read more of William Staffords poetry. A person blessed with a comfortable wallet would probably have just ordered a book of his poetry online. Alas, my wallet is usually lonely and empty, so it was either wait for my birthday to come along or go to the library. I'm not so good at waiting so the library was my destination. I could've gone to our local library, but it is a smaller library and usually disappoints me. Warsaw's library is where I was disappointed this time. They have such a huge collection of poetry I thought I'd find what I desired. Nope, they had a book about him sort of biography-ish with a couple poems. What a bummer, it looked as though l'd have to wait for my birthday after all.
Aha! Not so this time!!! I recently got a part-time job at our local library. Thus proving that I do in fact love books. Being a partner of a used bookstore and now a librarian!!! I'm still so excited with my new job. I am surprised with how busy we get sometimes, and then there are times when I have absolutely nothing to do. Of course the other librarian working with me has stuff to do but can't think of anything that I could do. This makes me afraid that my fellow librarians will see me doing nothing, complain and then fire me, so I try to stay busy walking around organizing shelves and straightening books. On one such venture I found myself in the poetry section and what do my eyes behold but a 249 paged book of William Stafford's poetry!!!!!!
Ah, the benefits of a paranoid librarian. :)

Doubt

I Could Make You

What if I could make you doubt
Every thought you've ever had?
What if I could make you doubt
Every word you've ever said?

I could make you stutter,
And speak maybe's not sure's and I thinks.
I could make you hold your breath,
And count every time your eye blinks.

Your every step would falter
At the terror of going outside.
Your face would twitch at a question
Wishing it could just hide.

"What reason could there be?"
You ask me now with doubt.
Beacause I'm tired of uncertainty,
And whispering when I'd rather shout.


Spithead likes to walk our pet crocidile with me. It gives us time to talk and enjoy nature. He usually asks me, "How's your writing going?", and I usually say, "It's not.". I hate answering like that because he's so supportive. I wish I were different. I think about writing a lot, but I don't have the hootspa to actually write it down. What I have written usually disapoints or disgusts me. Spithead would tell you otherwise, but he's my brother. Thats not to say he's dishonest with me. No, he's a great critic.
My biggest problem is that I can't keep anything going. I've got a ton of beginning, middles and ends but none of them fit together. Or continue on by themselves. I sometimes think the reason I have a hard time writing is my lack of "college education". But haven't there been loads of authors that were genius' without extra schooling? My trouble is with my lack of confidence and motivation. Where does one purchase these? I've prayed many times to be blessed with them, but Lord you obviously said no or not yet. Moving right along.........
Currently reading an early reviewer for LibraryThing called Dracula's Guest. Very interesting, its short stories of the very first, or beginnnings of, vampire stories. Before Bram Stoker and Stephenie Meyer. Also reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. Beautiful book with lovely pictures and an original story. Spithead got it for me from the library. Also reading poetry bur Rainer Maria Rilke and William Stafford. I was introduced to Rilke by Maggie Stiefvater's book Shiver. I have a nice sized poetry collection in my personal library. So I was very frustrated when I couldn't find any poems of the two previously mentioned poets in my possesion. And our printer is out of ink, so I had to wait till we went to the Warsaw library.
Didn't have much luck with Mr. William Stafford but did find some books of Rilke's poetry. One of the books is bilingual, so on one side you have the original German and on the other side english. That'd be an interesting way to teach myself German.
I shall leave you now with a poem each by the two poets I've been speaking of.

A Story That Could Be True
By William Stafford
If you were exchanged in the cradle and
your real mother died
without ever telling the story
then no one knows your name,
and somewhere in the world
your father is lost and needs you
but you are far away.

He can never find
how true you are, how ready.
When the great wind comes
and the robberies of the rain
you stand in the corner shivering.
The people who go by—
you wonder at their calm.

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."

Love Song
By Rainer Maria Rilke

How should I keep my soul
from touching yours? How should I
lift it beyond you toward other things?
Ah, I would gladly shelter it
in darkness with some lost thing,
on some remote unsounding place
that doesn't tremble, when your depths stir.
Yet everything that touches you or me
takes us together like a bow's stroke
that from two strings draws one voice.
Across what instrument are we stretched?
And what player holds us in his hand?
O sweet song.