William Edgar Stafford > Quotes

“Wisdom is having things right in your life
and knowing why.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music”
― William Edgar Stafford

“A Ritual to Read to Each Other


If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail,
but if one wanders the circus won’t find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider---
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give---yes or no, or maybe---
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“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 Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“Everyone is born a poet - a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words. I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is: Why did other people stop?”
― William Edgar Stafford

“We think it is calm here, or that our storm is the right size.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“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 Edgar Stafford, The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems

“If it should happen you wake up and Armageddon has come, lie still.”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“Between roars the lion purrs.”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“This dream the world is having about itself
includes a trace on the plains of the Oregon trail,
a groove in the grass my father showed us all
one day while meadowlarks were trying to tell
something better about to happen.”
― William Edgar Stafford, The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems

“I'll be Pavlov, you be the dog.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“Save the world by torturing one innocent child? Which innocent child?”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“Those who champion democracy, but make a fetish of never accepting anything they don't agree with -- what advantage do they see in democracy?”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“Those times you caught them out and showed them up -- they learned how stupid they are. But now you'll never hear the little song of their purring throats, and you'll never know what they think, when you say hello.”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“Can injustice one way be corrected without the interim reaction that tries to impose injustice the other way?”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“There may be losses too great to understand
That rove after you and--faint and terrible--
rip unknown through your hand.”
― William Edgar Stafford, The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems

“If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.”
― William Edgar Stafford, The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems

“Some people are blinded by their experience. Soldiers know how important war is. Owners of slaves learn every day how inferior subject peoples are.”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“Children of heroes have glory for breakfast.”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“Evening came, a paw, to the gray hut by the river.”
― William Edgar Stafford

“Protest poetry -- could there be consensus poetry?”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War

“Politicians need citizens who will permit them to behave reasonably.”
― William Edgar Stafford, Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War