William Stafford

Today we note the birth date of William Stafford (January 17, 1914 – August 28, 1993), American poet and pacifist.

Born in Hutchinson, Kansas, Stafford was 48 years old when his first major collection of poetry was published, Traveling Through the Dark, which won the 1963 National Book Award for Poetry

He was appointed the twentieth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1970.

Here is one of his poems for your consideration:

Assurance

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or the silence after lightening before it says
its names- and then the clouds' wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles- you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rock, and years. You turn your head-
that's what the silence meant: you're not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.
--William Stafford