Poem of the Week, by William Stafford

For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid

- William Stafford

There is a country to cross you will

find in the corner of your eye, in

the quick slip of your foot–air far

down, a snap that might have caught.

And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing

voice that finds its way by being

afraid. That country is there, for us,

carried as it is crossed. What you fear

will not go away: it will take you into

yourself and bless you and keep you.

That's the world, and we all live there.