The Way It Is

We honored the centennial of beloved poet William Stafford's birth this week with a visit to Lewis and Clark College. He taught there for nearly 30 years, and the college library held an exhibit of poetry artifacts and a multimedia show of photos he took over the years. My takeaway: Poets sure hang out together a lot! I guess I imagined a more tortured, solitary labor, but Stafford and his contemporaries had a grand old time. Good for them!

Ole found the exhibit a bit dry.

He perked up, though, when we took the campus walk of notable Stafford sites. At each spot there was a placard with an applicable poem (I should have taken a picture of one!). The campus is really lovely--wooded nature paths and the grand M. Lloyd Frank Manor House at the center.
Ole was in top form, biking all over and attracting all sorts of attention from students. Stephanie and I nudged each other and chuckled every time he said her name, too, "Snephanie" in a cute nasal voice.

I'll end with one of Stafford's poems. He was writing a poem a day in the months leading up to his death in 1993 and they all have a calm and wise tone to them, but this one near the end is my favorite.