A nice poem by William Stafford

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Fadl
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Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2004 4:55 am
Location: somewhere "in this immensity"

A nice poem by William Stafford

Postby Fadl » Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:54 am

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 Stafford
"Thus doth the Nightingale utter His call unto you from this prison. He hath but to deliver this clear message. Whosoever desireth, let him turn aside from this counsel and whosoever desireth let him choose the path to his Lord." - Baha'u'llah

brettz9
Posts: 1368
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2003 12:12 pm
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Re: A nice poem by William Stafford

Postby brettz9 » Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:24 pm

That is nice...Thanks for sharing with us...

Brett


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