The Way It Is - William Stafford

Mostly you look back and say, 'Well, OK.  Things might have

been different, sure, and it's not too bad, but look - things
happen like that, and you did what you could.'  You go back
and pick up the pieces.  There's tomorrow.  There's that long
bend in the river on the way home.  Fluffy bursts of milkweed
are floating through shafts of sunlight or disappearing where
trees reach out from their deep dark roots.

Maybe people have to go in and out of shadows till they learn
that floating, that immensity of waiting to receive whatever
arrives with trust.  Maybe somebody has to explore what
happens when one of us wanders over near the edge and falls
for awhile.  Maybe it was your turn.

William Stafford

original title "Afterwards"
from The Way It Is

with thanks to Whiskey River

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering

 

The Thread - William Stafford

There's a thread you follow.  It goes among
things that change.  But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.

Tragedies happen, people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you can do to stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.

William Stafford
from - The Way It Is, 1998

William Stafford's journey with words began most
mornings before sunrise.  This simple poem was
written 26 days before he passed.

One of his students, the poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote:
"In our time there has been no poet who revived human
hearts and spirits more convincingly than William Stafford.
There has been no one who gave more courage to a
journey with words, and silence, and an awakened life."

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - from the Internet
This is an actual bridge in Vietnam
color digitally altered