Dec 27, 2023
Next time what I’d do is look at the earth before saying anything. I’d stop just before going into a house and be an emperor for a minute and listen better to the wind or to the air being still. When anyone talked to me, whether blame or praise or just passing time, I’d watch the face, how the mouth has to work, and see any strain, any sign of what lifted the voice. And for all, I’d know more — the earth bracing itself and soaring, the air finding every leaf and feather over forest and water, and for every person the body glowing inside the clothes like a light.
— William Stafford, "Next Time" from The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems. © Graywolf Press, 1998.
