I glanced at her and took my glasses
off—they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip
on whatever they touched. "I am your own
way of looking at things," she said. "When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation." And I took her hand.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
"When I Met My Muse," by William Stafford
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"I am your own way of looking at things,"
ReplyDelete.
Dang! I wish I had words to describe how lovely and encouraging that is...
But since today I used the words "plumber", "drains" and "jackhammers" in the same sentence I can only offer a bit of Emerson's "Self Reliance" back at you....
"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
Best thoughts,
Marilyn
Thanks for the poem. As an editor, might you happen to know the copyright regulations on posting complete poems on blogs? I've often wanted to do so but didn't want the poetry police after me! I have the same question about posting them to listservs, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for any tips!
www.halldavidson.com is a great resource for copyright rules.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to a summary chart...
http://halldavidson.com/copyrightchart.html
Since this poem is less than 250 words and this is an educational not-for-profit blog I bet the poetry police will not be banging the door down any time soon.
Then again I always go by "It's easier to get forgiveness than to ask permission."
"And I LIKE reading cool stuff online," she whined.
Marilyn
That Bill Stafford was such a sweetheart.
ReplyDeleteI like reading poems online, too, toymaker/Marilyn. Thanks for the info.!
ReplyDelete