The Poetry of William Stafford: Comments

I will be attending a Deep Dive Poetry Workshop on the poet William Stafford (1914-1993) conducted by John Sibley Williams. This Zoom workshop will be held online on April 30, 2026.

I will be attending The Stafford Challenge 2026 Conference in Portland from June 18, 2026 until June 21, 2026. This conference will be held at the Lewis and Clark College campus. The conference has many noted teachers, poets, and scholars in attendance. Our local Vancouver, WA, poet laurate, art’s leader, editor, and teacher, Christopher Luna, will be one of the teachers.

In 2026, I have been reading a lot of the poetry written by William Stafford (1914-1993). He was a professor of English at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.  He is one of the best known poets from Oregon.

My preliminary observations about William Stafford’s poetry:

1.      His poems can most often fit on one page. Since I favor brief poems, his style of poetry appeals to me. His style is direct, plain, and succinct!

2.      He uses the Quintain form more often than any other poet I have ever read. I research quintains, pentastichs, tankas, cinquains, quintets, gogyohkas, wakas, commonplaces, and onions.

3.      He enjoyed the outdoors in the Pacific Northwest. He talked about camping, hiking, traveling, fishing, plants, geology, and enjoying life outdoors with family and friends. Since I also share many similar interests and write poetry about our Pacific Bio-Region, his concise poems resonated with me.

4.      His anti-war views and socio-political progressive views were appealing. He was a conscientious objector and worked in a federal camp. His philosophy was aligned with my own views on Virtue Ethics.

5.      Many of his poems reflect Native American viewpoints, storytelling, myths, and ways of speaking and writing. I have also studied and appreciate the literature of Native Americans.

6.      William Stafford’s style of writing benefits from the lack of obscure allusions, name dropping, radical metaphors and convoluted vocabulary, free verse rambling, Paris cliches and Big City shenanigans, and strange surrealistic oulipos avant-guard sophisticated wordiness.

 

Here are the poetry books by William Stafford that I have read:

Stafford, William. The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Graywolf, 1977, 1998, 268 pages. Paperback, Used, $8.00.
VSCPL (My home poetry research library.)

William Stafford. Allegiances. New Poems by William Stafford.
Harper and Row, 1970, 82 pages. FVRL. (Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries)

William Stafford. The Darkness Around Us is Deep.
1994, 160 pages. The Darkness Around Us is Deep:
Selected Poems of William Stafford – An Award-Winning
Poet's Works Chosen by Bestselling Author Robert Bly. VSCPL.

William Stafford. Even in Small Places.
Conference Press, 1996, 120 pages. FVRL.

William Stafford. The World Instead: The Early Poems
of William Stafford 1937-1947. Edited with an introduction
by Fred Merchant. Graywold Press, 2008, 149 pages. FVRL

 

I have also read books of poetry by William Stafford’s son,
Kim Stafford, as follows:

 

Stafford, Kim (Date). As the Sky Begins to Change.
By Kim Stafford. Red H2024, 135 pages. FVRL.

Kim Stafford. A Thousand Friends of Rain: New and
Selected Poems 1976-1998. By Kim Stafford. Carnegie Mellon
Press, 2005, 120 pages. FVRL.

Kim Stafford. Wild Honey, Tough Salt. By Kim Stafford.
Red Hen Press, 2019, 111 pages. FVRL.