I CRY EACH TIME
You can’t bear to listen for long,
it’s too intense.
- William Stafford, (“It’s Like This”)
Your card still marks the poem
in a book wrapped with ribbon
you gave me after a reading
half-dozen years ago in Elko –
kind-faced stranger saying
quietly, it was meant for me.
Page corners ruffled pink
with a wine stain, coffee
crescents on the cover
wipe off unlike the soil
of Dry Creek on each page
of Bill Stafford’s poetry.
The blade twists a little
yet, each time I open to
what may have been a random
bookmark, or a random poet
listening for that sound beyond
us all that makes us human –
but I think of you.
for Bonnie Pomeroy Stern
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A child of the 50s and 60s, I hear the unique harmony of Don and Phil Everly complete this non-cowboy title from “Cathy’s Clown” – a personal parallel to Stafford’s intense state of vulnerability in “It’s Like This” from a dramatic, romantic era. Ever the teacher, reading Stafford continues to open doors to deeper levels of humanity.
Thank you Bonnie for the gesture that fits so well.