The Solace of the River

Big Frank greatly admires the writing of William Stafford. Below is a particularly good poem of his. Stafford bites off a very serious chunk in this poem. This is a truly big pictures poem that places us human beings in much larger context than the simple narrative with which we so often accompany our lives - whether its our narrative or one of someone else. As Stafford wrote about this poem: "There is a steadyness and somehow a solace in knowing that what is around us so greatly surpasses our human concerns." It carries a common theme of Stafford's: accepting what comes.

Ask Me

Some time when the river is ice ask me

mistakes I have made. Ask me whether

what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into

my thought, and some have tried to help

or to hurt: ask me what difference

their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.

You and I can turn and look

at the silent river and wait. We know

the current is there, hidden; and there

are comings and goings from miles away

that hold the stillness exactly before us.

What the river says, that is what I say.