The William E. Stafford, Archives Series 1, Sub-Series 2: Travel Journals, 1952-1992

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Stafford, William, 1914-1993
Title
The William E. Stafford, Archives Series 1, Sub-Series 2: Travel Journals
Dates
1952-1992 (inclusive)
Quantity
15 cubic feet, (8 boxes)
Collection Number
OLPb105STA
Summary
William Stafford (1914-1993) was one of the most prolific and important American poets of the last half of the twentieth century. This subseries includes Stafford's handwritten journals that served as his daily writings while he was traveling. Many of the drafts in this collection were revised as documentary copies. The Index to the entire Stafford Archives can be found at: http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv83782
Repository
Lewis & Clark College, Special Collections and Archives

Aubrey R. Watzek Library
615 S. Palatine Hill Rd.
Portland, OR
97219
Telephone: 5037687758
Fax: 5037687282
archives@lclark.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection has no restrictions and is open for research.

Languages
English

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

William Stafford (1914-1993) was one of the most prolific and important American poets of the last half of the twentieth century. Among his many credentials, Stafford served as consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress, and received the National Book Award for his poetry collection Traveling through the Dark (1963). During his lifetime, Stafford wrote over sixty books of poetry that still resonate with both scholars and general readers. Stafford’s perspectives on peace, the environment, and education serve as some of the most articulate and engaging dialogues by a modern American writer about three of the most important issues of the second half of the twentieth century with lasting impacts on future generations. Howard Zinn, one America’s most iconic modern historians, was keenly aware of Stafford’s insight into modern American culture. Zinn claimed, “William Stafford’s prose and poetry, wise and eloquent, speak directly to the violence of our time, and to our hope for a different world” (from cover of Every War Has Two Losers).

The William Stafford Archives, donated to Lewis & Clark College by the Stafford family in 2008, contain the private papers, publications, photographs, recordings, and teaching materials of the poet William Stafford. The Lewis & Clark College Special Collections actively add to this collection by acquiring unique Stafford related materials.

Stafford wrote every day of his life from 1950 to 1993. These 20,000 pages of daily writings form a complete record of the poet’s mostly early morning meditations, including poem drafts, dream records, aphorisms, and other visits to the unconscious, recorded on separate sheets of yellow or white paper or when traveling, often in spiral-bound reporters’ steno pads. The archive also includes typescripts of poems submitted for publication and for use in readings. Stafford listed where he submitted each poem, and whether it was accepted for publication on the typescript. Each of his published collections, large and small, is represented by its gathering of documentary copies (typescripts), called by Stafford a “put-together.” Unpublished poems, poems published in journals, and reading copies of published poems were also gathered, in a virtually complete record from 1937 to 1993, totaling about 7,000 items. The collection also includes copies of all known Stafford books and translations. Stafford saved correspondence received, with an indication of the date of reply, and sometimes a copy of the reply, from the early 1960s to August 1993. Estimated at 100,000 sheets, the collected correspondence contains some full exchanges of correspondence initiated by WS. One such exchange is the correspondence with Marvin Bell on their sequence Segues. In addition to many photographs of and relating to William Stafford, the archive includes an estimated 20,000 photographs and negatives taken and developed by Stafford of fellow poets, family, friends, and Lewis & Clark College faculty. The archive provides documentation of Stafford's teaching career, including more than one thousand index cards, some dating from research at Iowa, others from later. These were much used in preparing for classes, workshops, and lectures. The files also contain scattered notes for workshops and lectures. The archive also includes course syllabi, and faculty documents relating to Stafford's teaching years at Lewis & Clark College.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

Includes Stafford's handwritten journals that served as Stafford's daily writings while he was traveling. Many of the drafts in this collection were revised as documentary copies.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish, exhibit, broadcast, or quote from materials in the Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections requires written permission of the Head of Archives & Special Collections.

Preferred Citation

The William Stafford Archives, Lewis & Clark College Aubrey Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections, Portland, Oregon.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Location of Collection

Special Collections

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Dietzgen Field Book (brown), June 21, 1952-February 24, 1969Return to Top

Container(s): 1.1

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj1.1
untitled
First line: When this you feel
6/22/52
tj1.2
untitled
First line: If you have sought approval...
6/22/52
tj1.3
untitled
First line: Stars, the cold minorities
6/22/52
tj1.4
untitled
First line: Passed Sacajawea’s grave
6/28/52
tj1.5
untitled
First line: In cafe at Rawlins
6/28/52
tj1.6
untitled
First line: Dubois is in the Wind River canyon
6/28/52
tj1.7
untitled
First line: North of Laramie
6/28/52
tj1.8
untitled
First line: A man just retired (story)
6/29/52
tj1.9
untitled
First line: There’s the pause
6/29/52
tj1.10
untitled
First line: In all moose-herd mistakes
6/29/52
tj1.11
untitled
First line: This is my cave - our solid world
6/29/52
tj1.12
"Day after Day"
First line: In green hollows of black woods
7/1/52
tj1.13
untitled
First line: Summer is many, and the world
7/1/52
tj1.14
untitled
First line: There was an earth
7/2/52
tj1.15
untitled
First line: In the drowning bobcat
7/7/52
tj1.16
untitled
First line: Trees just growing
7/10/52
tj1.17
untitled
First line: The grass linked north of Laramie
7/10/52
tj1.18
untitled
First line: I followed you like still-day smoke
7/10/52
tj1.19
untitled
First line: Beside the stones of the foothills
7/10/52
tj1.20
untitled
First line: The wind that came thru that still day
7/10/52
tj1.21
untitled
First line: Only by watching the vigor
7/11/52
tj1.22
untitled
First line: I felt this tree fear
7/11/52
tj1.23
untitled
First line: I am reading Wm. Wordsworth
7/11/52
tj1.24
untitled
First line: Watchers on the shore, where are we bound?
7/11/52
tj1.25
untitled
First line: Some pose their hope on pinnacles
7/11/52
tj1.26
untitled
First line: Out of all this rock, ice, trees
7/11/52
tj1.27
untitled
First line: Waiting on the shore the trees were tall
7/12/52
tj1.28
untitled
First line: Think of the farthest deer hesitating
7/14/52
tj1.29
untitled
First line: On covert paths at night the deer
7/14/52
tj1.30
untitled
First line: p.227 bottom...
7/14/52
tj1.31
untitled
First line: Some autumn day the wind will swirl these trees
7/14/52
tj1.32
untitled
First line: We must always be on our guard
7/14/52
tj1.33
untitled
First line: Read After the Lost Generation
7/14/52
tj1.34
untitled
First line: Strawberry Lake
6/15/60
tj1.35
untitled
First line: The kids all delight in the littlest things
7/13/60
tj1.37
untitled
First line: At Banff there is a RCMP man
7/17/60
tj1.38
untitled
First line: In the country of the twelve peaks
7/17/60
tj1.39
untitled
First line: Going to turn, outward, alone
7/18/60
tj1.40
untitled
First line: Those who indicted her as vain, selfish, etc.
7/19/60
tj1.41
untitled
First line: Barbara: ‘Member that Indian
7/19/60

Stenographer's Notebook (yellow), June 8, 1962-July 24, 1962Return to Top

Container(s): 1.2

Stenographer's Notebook (gray), April 6, 1964-July 3, 1964Return to Top

Container(s): 1.3

Maryland and Alaska (copy), March 1969Return to Top

Container(s): 1.4

New York and Michigan (copy), November 1969Return to Top

Container(s): 1.5

Composition Book (mottled green), April 17, 1972-July 23, 1972Return to Top

Container(s): 1.6

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj4.1
"What do you accuse Ellen of?”
First line: It settles to be pride. Not just hers - ours
4/17/72
tj4.2
"Poem [to Me] for [on] My Birthday"
First line: My parents were supposed to meet
4/17/72
tj4.3
Our Life
First line: We should give it away, like a breath
4/18/72
tj4.4
New Friends
First line: They approach, odd times, any
4/19/72
tj4.5
page of prose
First line: Letter to Dorothy...
4/20/72
tj4.6
untitled
First line: It will happen again, the long
4/22/72
tj4.7
Dreams to Have]
First line: Every picture has us in it
4/24/72
tj4.8
page of prose
First line: In poetry writing...
4/24/72
tj4.9
Dreams to Have
First line: They filmed a woman falling from a bridge
4/25/72
tj4.10
Church Keeps On
First line: No house can last, no house
4/25/72
tj4.10
Storm Haiku]
First line: Bare trees tell the wind
4/26/72
tj4.11
Departure Time]
First line: What kind of sunlight would you have?
4/26/72
tj4.12
Departure Time
First line: Announcements rang over the afternoon
4/27/72
tj4.13
page of prose
First line: I met classes...
4/29/72
tj4.14
Way It Will Be
First line: We come near, lose, go on.
4/30/72
tj4.15
Sunday School Picnic
First line: In the sandhills we climb
5/1/72
tj4.16
May in Delaware
First line: Doves give summer to this town
5/1/72
tj4.17
untitled
First line: Because it is May, everything
5/2/72
tj4.18
untitled
First line: Some of you words that follow me
5/2/72
tj4.18
Returns]
First line: Whatever our purpose, we are to look down
5/2/72
tj4.19
Returns]
First line: Where I live the streaming windows
5/2/72
tj4.19
Morning Song [Sorry I’m Late]
First line: Clock, I take it all back
5/5/72
tj4.20
Measured Regrets [Easy-Going]
First line: Many things brought me here. I’m
5/5/72
tj4.21
untitled
First line: On the floor when the sun found it
5/7/72
tj4.22
In the Desert]
First line: Once you look up this place becomes
5/8/72
tj4.23
untitled
First line: Some of you words that follow me
5/8/72
tj4.24
Any Journey
First line: When God watches you walk, you are
5/9/72
tj4.24v
Vesper[s]
First line: As the living pass, they bow
5/10/72
tj4.25
Vespers]
First line: As we passed the living, they bowed
5/10/72
tj4.26
untitled
First line: Sudden leaves have many a
5/14/72
tj4.27
untitled
First line: Alone, with a life, one move then
5/15/72
tj4.28
untitled
First line: It was the storm that was lost
5/19/72
tj4.28
untitled
First line: When my sight follows tree shadow
5/20/72
tj4.29
Summer Concert
First line: In the afternoon where people waited
5/20/72
tj4.30
untitled
First line: We do little these days, but the leaves
5/21/72
tj4.31
Conditions
First line: Torn when summer came
5/22/72
tj4.32
untitled
First line: Yes grass grows here. It recognizes
5/23/72
tj4.33
At High Meadow
First line: While we built our house we felt
5/24/72
tj4.34
In Skeleton Cave
First line: Hand open along the wall, we breathlessly
5/25/72
tj4.35
Over Near Bend]
First line: As often as gravel, you told me
5/26/72
tj4.36
untitled
First line: Please don’t ask me: an appeal
5/27/72
tj4.36
untitled
First line: Close to flame where we live, a flutter
5/28/72
tj4.37
Some Day
First line: Some day for some, they will turn and
5/28/72
tj4.38
Then]
First line: Something will happen. You hold
5/30/72
tj4.38
untitled
First line: Remember Walt’s tractor was a Cadillac
5/31/72
tj4.39
Do You Remember Them?`
First line: Some can hope you will remember them
5/31/72
tj4.40
Memorial Day [Rescue Me, Day]
First line: Do you remember that big, sharp, picture?
5/31/72
tj4.41
Keeping a Journal, Even in Bad Times]
First line: Those rays of the sun that chose me
6/1/72
tj4.42
untitled
First line: This world I have - not various
6/2/72
tj4.43
Old Farm
First line: Once, this fence held up these vines
6/2/72
tj4.43
untitled
First line: Hard to believe, but nothing could be more careful
6/3/72
tj4.44
page of prose
First line: What was withheld, not physical...
6/3/72
tj4.45
prose
First line: And we realize...
6/3/72
tj4.46
untitled
First line: Every night stops, quiet in every
6/3/72
tj4.47
untitled
First line: At noon we started through the trees
6/4/72
tj4.48
World
First line: It came up to the door, and I hurried
6/4/72
tj4.49
One Home (book title)
First line: This is for my father, who was good to me
6/6/72
tj4.49
untitled
First line: Back of the roof all the gray meoning sky
6/7/72
tj4.50
From the Study] & [Strange Face on the Sand]
First line: The shadow of the pen is writing
6/7/72
tj4.51
untitled
First line: The meadow receives all. No ambition
6/7/72
tj4.52
untitled
First line: No, not on this river, and
6/15/72
tj4.53
Both Ways]
First line: Something came through town every day
7/16/72
tj4.54
Farewell Letter to Whoever Finds It]
First line: Reading Wittgenstein that intellectual catnip
7/23/72
tj4.55
Farewell] Letter to Whoever Finds It
First line: Please take what you like of all
7/23/72
tj5.1
untitled
First line: Only close to the plane, and folded
3/25/79

National Notebook (blue, missing tape on spine), March 25, 1979-June 17, 1980Return to Top

Container(s): 1.7

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj5.1
In the Silent Hills Where Prisoners Are Buried Who Died While Serving Unjust Sentences
First line: Now do you hear us?
3/25/79
tj5.1v
To the Worst Teacher in Roosevelt School
First line: Every word had quotes around it, in your town
3/27/79
tj5.2
Journey]
First line: Through many doors (but I go through doors
3/28/79
tj5.2v
Journey
First line: Through many doors it’s been - through
3/29/79
tj5.3
Character
First line: Why does the face move as it passes along
3/29/79
tj5.3v
One Time
First line: When evening had flowed betwen houses
3/29/79
tj5.4
In the Silent Hills Where Prisoners Are Buried Who Died While Serving Unjust Sentences]
First line: Now do you hear us?
3/30/79
tj5.5
Eloquent Box]
First line: Here is the compartment of truth
4/10/79
tj5.5v
untitled
First line: It is there again, whatever
4/12/79
tj5.6
It
First line: It clouded up
4/17/79
tj5.6v
untitled
First line: I knew a root once, found water
4/17/79
tj5.7
Quarter Moon
First line: The moon has dropped back this morning, half
4/17/79
tj5.7v
Definitions
First line: What is woe? Along the Crystal Fork
4/18/79
tj5.8
Comeuppance
First line: Whatever I said that you didn’t like
4/19/79
tj5.9
prose
First line: down in the gravel...
4/19/79
tj5.10
untitled
First line: The octopus wants to understand. It prowls
5/2/79
tj5.10v
untitled
First line: Did you happen to notice this morning
5/4/79
tj5.11
prose
First line: At Mark and Anna
5/11/79
tj5.12
untitled
First line: Except that it move it not be
7/3/79
tj5.12v
At Max Wickert’s Place]
First line: All evening the evening flowed past on the porch
7/4/79
tj5.13
At Max Wickert’s Place]
First line: I felt evening flow past outside. We
7/5/79
tj5.14
untitled
First line: Approaching the house, I began to recite
7/6/79
tj5.15
untitled
First line: Prisoner in this bone bag, sing, adjust
7/7/79
tj5.15v
Jogging in Rochester Cemetery
First line: More agile than they are, I lumber past
7/9/79
tj5.16v
untitled
First line: When rain -its weariness - comes
7/10/79
tj5.16v
Arrivals
First line: Many fled. Some stayed. A few
7/12/79
tj5.17
Passing Mount Hope Cemetery]
First line: Fireflies in the tangled grass along the cemetery
7/12/79
tj5.18
Going Home Last Night [Passing Mount Hope Cemetery]
First line: Creeping at dusk through the long
7/13/79
tj5.18v
Wovoka in Nevada]
First line: Little pieces of gold wash down
8/5/79
tj5.19
Help from History]
First line: Please help me know it happened
1/15/80
tj5.20
prose
First line: Be leery of...
1/16/80
tj5.20v
untitled
First line: Now that the table waits and a chair
2/8/80
tj5.21
untitled
First line: Remember that word we tramped in the snow
2/10/80
tj5.22v
Being a Lake
First line: Beginning like water I hurry
2/13/80
tj5.23
untitled
First line: Half of what you say is “No.”
2/14/80
tj5.23v
untitled
First line: Through the pillow, deep, still
2/27/80
tj5.24
Who We Are]
First line: We came from nothing. We are the beginning
3/20/80
tj5.24v
Saying Goodby at a Writers’ Conference by a Lake in Oklahoma]
First line: Someone from the real government will speak
3/20/80
tj5.25
Saying Goodby at a Writers’ Conference by a Lake in Oklahoma]
First line: Anything that came, you could see
3/22/80
tj5.25v
Saying Goodby at a Writers’ Conference by a Lake in Oklahoma]
First line: Early, immediate from the ground, wild
3/23/80
tj5.26
Fiction
First line: We would get a map of our farm as big
3/25/80
tj5.26v
untitled
First line: What if I tell you a river? And on it
3/25/80
tj5.26v
Worn-Out Record [Where I Live]
First line: The world has a tall roof. Wind
3/27/80
tj5.27
untitled
First line: Music explores to discover moments of silence.
3/28/80
tj5.27
untitled
First line: At a party they stop, clogging doors, leaning
3/29/80
tj5.27v
untitled
First line: There were large quiet holes in the music
4/2/80
tj5.28
untitled
First line: They said snow. It’s clear. So different
4/3/80
tj5.28
untitled
First line: My room has light, and I
4/4/80
tj5.29
untitled
First line: We found spring again. You live
6/16/80
tj5.29
untitled
First line: Roll far, lean far, return by
6/17/80

Composition Book (mottled green), March 1, 1981-October 29, 1982Return to Top

Container(s): 2.1

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj6.1
untitled
First line: We face outward, nerved up to discover
3/2/81
tj6.1
untitled
First line: They have Chinaberry trees here
3/2/81
tj6.1v
Hedge Trees
First line: Bodarc, “they call us, “osage orange’
3/2/81
tj6.2
Greatness
First line: They put Greek marble columns by the administration
3/3/81
tj6.2v
untitled
First line: Often alone through a window you
3/4/81
tj6.2v
untitled
First line: You don’t sing now. You don’t
3/5/81
tj6.3
untitled
First line: Some of the villains wave guns. They will
3/4/81
tj6.3
Learning at Westminster
First line: It was the workers taught me—how
3/5/81
tj6.4
untitled
First line: Headlight, find a new road. Road,
3/6/81
tj6.4v
untitled
First line: You have heard the story
3/7/81
tj6.5
Existentialism
First line: You climb a hillside and find a cave
3/7/81
tj6.5v
Visitors at Westminster College
First line: A bird with a shrill kraking cry
3/8/81
tj6.6
untitled
First line: A press, a song, a place where
3/9/81
tj6.6v
untitled
First line: Suddenly be the sun; be over
3/10/81
tj6.7
Little White Dog
First line: On a hill in Missouri a little white dog
3/11/81
tj6.7
Two for the Country
First line: Shoes the color of dust find their way past
3/11/81
tj6.7v
untitled
First line: Never come back, Nicholas, with your
3/12/81
tj6.8v
untitled
First line: Comforts they gave, to be warm, to eat
11/10/81
tj6.9
untitled
First line: We had it awhile. Earth went away. My feet
11/10/81
tj6.9v
Emily
First line: Monuments last too long. Her voice brought
11/11/81
tj6.10v
Storm Warning, at Naomi and Burnie Clark’s Place in the Coast Range, 14 Nov.81]
First line: A big oak branch crashed near
11/15/81
tj6.11
untitled
First line: Even in the mountains, an ant is only
7/27/82
tj6.12
untitled
First line: At first light from sheer cliffs on the mountain
7/28/82
tj6.12v
untitled
First line: Trees on the mountain tell where water is
7/29/82
tj6.13
Report to my Mother
First line: In the alley by the royal motel at dawn
9/14/82
tj6.13v
Reading the Big Weather]
First line: Mornings we see our breath. Weeds
9/15/82
tj6.14
Reading the Big Weather]
First line: This earth we are riding
9/15/82
tj6.14v
Seeing it as Art: Tradition at the University of Idaho]
First line: It spreads over some hills, the gym
9/16/82
tj6.15
Last Night
First line: As the sun went down an arrow of light
9/17/82
tj6.16
untitled
First line: Lights have come often for me, in winter
10/3/82
tj6.16v
untitled
First line: Its evening wings the heron spread
10/4/82
tj6.17
By the Stockyard
First line: Heavy down where death lives, the bulls of Deep Springs
10/4/82
tj6.17
Touch of Class [Calling Deep Springs]
First line: A skunk, or some good plant that knows
10/4/82
tj6.17v
Returning]
First line: Though they are slow, the hills do move and are moving
10/28/82
tj6.18
Returning]
First line: Her name like a mint in my mouth
10/28/82
tj6.19
Coming Back [Returning]
First line: Those hills north of town that will come
10/29/82

National Notebook (blue, tape on spine), August 25, 1983-March 7, 1987Return to Top

Container(s): 2.2

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj7.1
Storms at Boise
First line: Where storms come from, those lightning fused
9/1/83
tj7.2
untitled
First line: At Lakin the lake is gone, a field now
9/11/83
tj7.3
untitled
First line: It is easy for vines—they ride with time
9/12/83
tj7.3
untitled
First line: Becoming someone else for awhile
9/13/83
tj7.3
untitled
First line: We kept making the inside. Again
9/14/83
tj7.4
Coming Back [to Western Kansas]
First line: No one comes out of the crowd or through
9/15/83
tj7.5
untitled
First line: A light climbed a tree. It stayed there
9/22/83
tj7.6
Facing Dawn at Oklahoma State]
First line: Our fire made a room in the dark
10/2/83
tj7.7
untitled
First line: My hope is to find a house, to know
10/3/83
tj.7.8
untitled
First line: It is far through the treas, and ways
10/4/83
tj7.8
untitled
First line: What the sun sees when clouds go away
10/5/83
tj7.9
Hills in Eastern Ohio]
First line: The hills only wait. All they know is
10/8/83
tj7.10
Our Time]
First line: I wouldn’t have any stars, only trees
10/10/83
tj7.11
untitled
First line: Shut the day out. Stop
10/11/83
tj7.11
untitled
First line: On the shelves the library books wait to be
10/12/83
tj7.12
Saint Matthew and All]
First line: Lorene, we thought she’d be home, but
10/16/83
tj7.13
untitled
First line: In the world, when I was there, all things
10/17/83
tj7.13
Once in Michigan]
First line: My mother began reaching toward me. This was because
10/18/83
tj7.15
untitled
First line: The other people, their radar all turned
1/23/84
tj7.15
Absences
First line: Once when the waves were talking, one said
1/24/84
tj7.16
untitled
First line: By little traces a river begins. By
2/9/84
tj7.16
untitled
First line: When the sun found you, and your shadow ran
2/10/84
tj7.17
untitled
First line: Because of how things are, we’ll go
2/11/84
tj7.19
untitled
First line: It was all right because the trees
2/19/84
tj7.19
Breathing in Baton Rouge
First line: They let you run on this road—you are
2/20/84
tj7.21
Problems
First line: Keeping a body brings trouble. You have to
2/22/84
tj7.23
untitled
First line: Birds are part of the sun, powered
2/24/84
tj7.25
untitled
First line: Away where your choices faded
3/29/84
tj7.26
untitled
First line: Behind the desk you have a story: with luck
3/30/84
tj7.26
Pilfering
First line: This day is numbered. It falls
3/31/84
tj7.28
Questions That Come [in the Spring]
First line: Many branches are spread against the sky
4/1/84
tj7.29
untitled
First line: A person begins at one end of a path
4/2/84
tj7.30
untitled
First line: This time what they did was
4/4/84
tj7.31
Trying to Explain
First line: Manacled on in the cold morning, my watch
4/5/84
tj7.32
Punk Sound
First line: This funeral celebrates Curt Pang
4/7/84
tj7.33
Seventieth Birthday
First line: One bird call outside the house, then
4/7/84
tj7.34
Confronting an Angry Person
First line: First, ask, “What illness, abiding
4/8/84
tj7.35
page of prose
First line: The language...
4/9/84
tj7.37
untitled
First line: Others didn’t care, but the storm outside
5/4/84
tj7.39
Ms Found in a Bottle [In the Cemetery Beyond Eisenhower Avenue]
First line: Maybe for you it is different, easy anger
7/13/84
tj7.40
At Fort Worden: Calling Names]
First line: It is not your fault that The Lilliwaup and
7/13/84
tj7.41
Old Time Centrum Blues
First line: A wave will tease till a stone
7/15/84
tj7.42
untitled
First line: How can you be alone?—the sky
7/15/84
tj7.42
Station on the Way
First line: Scribbled in dust, wound under grass
7/15/84
tj7.43
Featured Performer]
First line: When the speaker’s eloquence
7/16/84
tj7.44
Song for] a Foggy Day [at Port Townsend]
First line: When Archimedes was young
7/17/84
tj7.44
How They Hold Their Heads
First line: Hardly any are straight
7/17/84
tj7.46
AIR: For My Parents
First line: West wind, fresh from the sea
7/18/84
tj7.48
untitled
First line: Finally the clouds have come
7/20/84
tj7.49
page of prose
First line: Today the significances...
7/21/84
tj7.50
At a Shrine in Kamakura
First line: A boy made of cement and carrying a book
8/27/84
tj7.50
untitled
First line: My own country is called early morning
8/28/84
tj7.51
untitled
First line: In the wandering currents of chance
8/30/84
tj7.52
Bush from Mongolia
First line: That bush with light green leaves
8/31/84
tj7.52
History of [Hokkaido] Our Land
First line: In old times here the hills moved
9/2/84
tj7.53
Japanese Workmen
First line: My boots with big toes separate help me
9/3/84
tj7.54
untitled
First line: A person that no one knew came walking
9/5/84
tj7.55
untitled
First line: The best of them are gone. We don’t
9/5/84
tj7.56
Two Ships
First line: If you encounter a lady by the forard rail
9/7/84
tj7.57
page of notes
First line: 13-Oct-84
10/13/84
tj7.58
untitled
First line: At Al’s Cafe in Westley we will turn
10/14/84
tj7.58
untitled
First line: I followed the airport limousine into a drive
10/15/84
tj7.59
untitled
First line: They follow their craeers wherever a necessary
10/15/84
tj7.60
untitled
First line: Daylight begins to accumulate behind the blind
10/16/84
tj7.60
On a Rock in the Desert
First line: Out here, like you, we read this legend
10/16/84
tj7.61
untitled
First line: Someone was walking in shadows
10/17/84
tj7.62
How It Can Be
First line: Her country was invaded and what she owned
10/18/84
tj7.64
untitled
First line: A moody tree outside our window
10/20/84
tj7.65
Survivors
First line: What green there was came in the fall
10/21/84
tj7.65
untitled
First line: Carefully, even though it is safe, edge
10/22/84
tj7.66
untitled
First line: We have each other to learn from
10/24/84
tj7.67
Saying “Light,” Saying “Corazon” part 2]
First line: At midnight I heard the refrigerator heart
11/1/84
tj7.68
untitled
First line: Alcoves and closets allow us beyond
11/9/84
tj7.71
untitled
First line: Look into their eyes—they are hiding
11/9/84
tj7.72
Woodlot
First line: After a fine poplar takes over
11/10/84
tj7.72
Crows
First line: Nature leaves a little space—they crowd
3/21/85
tj7.73
untitled
First line: Old Mrs Tanaka trudges by. Her children
4/3/85
tj7.74
untitled
First line: What slid, a boulder, stopped ahead
4/4/85
tj7.75
untitled
First line: My first earthquake only rippled
4/5/85
tj7.76
untitled
First line: My broken ---- has discovered that country
4/8/85
tj7.77
19th Century Art [Retrospective: John Frederick Kensett 1816-1872]
First line: It stays, that century. It peeled from the ground
4/10/85
tj7.78
untitled
First line: Whatever light the fine gray sky
4/11/85
tj7.80
untitled
First line: This place will extend your life. Live
4/19/85
tj7.81
untitled
First line: Call in the shapes now
4/20/85
tj7.82
untitled
First line: We have not considered how exact
4/21/85
tj7.84
Kolob Canyon
First line: The storm is coming because
4/26/85
tj7.85
untitled
First line: At night the hills depart; they wander
4/28/85
tj7.86
untitled
First line: This morning’s air has Utah on its breath
4/29/85
tj7.87
untitled
First line: Grass asserts its green wherever the pavement
4/30/85
tj7.88
untitled
First line: A tiny dog dances to celebrate
5/3/85
tj7.89
untitled
First line: In their order, breakers advance, five
5/18/85
tj7.90
untitled
First line: They found a few tracks half-hidden by leaves
6/8/85
tj7.91
untitled
First line: Far down a road where nobody walks
6/9/85
tj7.92
untitled
First line: A rock, they say, is only a shadow
6/9/85
tj7.92
Seeing Someone from the Past]
First line: Often when the moon goes by shuddering
6/10/85
tj7.93
untitled
First line: After each funeral - at first they looked up through the ground
6/10/85
tj7.93
Proper Conduct
First line: The way to climb a stair is—respect
6/11/85
tj7.94
Mockingbird]
First line: Late when the moon begins that smooth
6/11/85
tj7.94
untitled
First line: To impress the world, its air, its
6/12/85
tj7.95
Way It Is
First line: Parallel to our world, or hidden from us or muffled
6/13/85
tj7.96
untitled
First line: Laramie floats unmoving
6/23/85
tj7.97
Bluegrass at Vedauwoo
First line: You would think that music might wake
6/26/85
tj7.98
Today’s Bread
First line: These days, a crumb on the floor
6/27/85
tj7.99
Hearing the Wind
First line: The forest waits. It will retreat
7/22/85
tj7.100
Summer We Didn’t Die
First line: That year, that summer, that vacation
7/22/85
tj7.101
Values at the Claridge
First line: Patriotism and good food of course
7/24/85
tj7.101
untitled
First line: The eagle above the libraryt gapes its permanent
7/24/85
tj7.102
Resume [A Child of Our Century]
First line: At thirteen my disguise became permanent, except
7/25/85
tj7.103
Tracks in the Sand
First line: For everyone, I’m a substitute
9/21/85
tj7.104
Trouble with Reading]
First line: When a goat reads a book, the book is gone
3/3/87
tj7.105
untitled
First line: Near, it’s light on the hill, then a wide
3/4/87
tj7.106
After a Good Class
First line: You may carry this day folded all your life
3/5/87

Cloth-bound Notebook (wine with flowers), August 24, 1984-August 14, 1987Return to Top

Container(s): 2.3

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj8.1
flyleaf inscription
First line: This book...
8/23/84
tj8.2
page of prose
First line: On the plane...
8/24/84
tj8.2v
page of prose
First line: Our hotel room...
8/24/84
tj8.3
page of prose
First line: Yesterday Bill Elliott...
8/25/84
tj8.3v
Nobody
First line: From Yokohama harbor ancestors
8/25/84
tj8.4
page of prose
First line: Under a new lens...
8/26/84
tj8.4v
page of prose
First line: My lecture tomorrow...
8/26/84
tj8.5
page of prose
First line: Improvements in mechanical things in Japan...
8/27/84
tj8.5v
page of prose
First line: Today we go...
8/29/84
tj8.5v
From the Afterworld (description of Yoshihara reading)
First line: This is my skull.
8/29/84
tj8.6
page of prose
First line: Yujin is due...
8/29/84
tj8.6v
Hi There (Tanikawa,tr. WS)
First line: [Yesterday] Yori and I translated...
8/30/84
tj8.7
page of prose
First line: good health...
9/1/84
tj8.7
History of Our Land
First line: We went ... [yesterday]... to a museum—Ainu history, pioneer history of Hokkaido
9/2/84
tj8.7v
Nameplate (Rin Ishigaki, tr WS)
First line: [Yesterday] translated...
9/2/84
tj8.8
page of prose
First line: The father of a student...
9/3/84
tj8.8
By the Memorial Gate / BIrd Talk
First line: Yori and I exchange...
9/4/84
tj8.8v
page of prose
First line: Today at 9...
9/5/84
tj8.9
lecture notes
First line: Anti-War in the USA: 1930s & 1940s
9/6/84
tj8.9v
page of prose
First line: Yujin comes home...
9/6/84
tj8.10
page of prose w/ list of photos
First line: Yaguchis, Dorothy...
9/9/84
tj8.10v
photo list (contd.)
First line: 8: Yujin...
9/9/84
tj8.11
photo list (contd.)
First line: 11: Dorothy...
9/9/84
tj8.11
Lake Shikotsu]
First line: If you meet a bear don’t move; keep
9/10/84
tj8.11v
Lake Shikotsu]
First line: A bell, a stretch of sand, four crows
9/10/84
tj8.12
page of prose
First line: From Hokusai Gakuin...
9/10/84
tj8.12v
page of prose
First line: Our room...
9/11/84
tj8.13
State of the Union
First line: Every soldier, each with a rifle and a shadow
2/7/85
tj8.13v
From the Plane Window
First line: Does anything move this morning in the cold?
2/10/85
tj8.14
page of prose
First line: At Wells College..
10/13/85
tj8.14v
untitled
First line: Only one turn in the gyre and you’re
10/13/85
tj8.15
New England
First line: All this color, smothered by summer
10/14/85
tj8.15v
Cayuga Geese]
First line: Geese discover how the air divides
10/14/85
tj8.15v
untitled
First line: Through the windshiled billboards rushed
10/15/85
tj8.16
untitled
First line: All my window, all my door, wide
10/17/85
tj8.16v
Cayuga Geese
First line: The air divides. A flock tilts
10/17/85
tj8.17
untitled
First line: Light in Idaho toward evening decides
10/25/85
tj8.17v
untitled
First line: Slowly the light relinquishes Idaho
10/26/85
tj8.18
Utah
First line: After Idaho, farmhouses have
10/26/85
tj8.18v
dream, contd.
First line: ...with surprising...
10/28/85
tj8.19
dream, contd.
First line: ...of thought...
10/28/85
tj8.19v
dream, contd.
First line: ...as those addicted...
10/28/85
tj8.20
untitled
First line: Alder, elm, ash, maple, willow
10/30/85
tj8.20v
untitled
First line: A stale air hovers over the university
11/1/85
tj8.21
page of prose
First line: Dream:A person...
11/3/85
tj8.21v
page of prose
First line: Ted Talley...
11/6/85
tj8.22
page of prose
First line: Andrew Dillon...
11/15/85
tj8.22v
page of prose
First line: From U of N Florida
11/21/85
tj8.23
page of prose
First line: Grand Canyon City
11/29/85
tj8.23v
untitled
First line: In the desert, whatever is green follows
2/1/86
tj8.24
untitled
First line: Out of the light but looking in
2/2/86
tj8.24v
Lorraine Motel, Memphis, poem]
First line: Abernathy was there, Andrew Young
2/3/86
tj8.25
Lorraine Motel, Memphis, poem]
First line: Long reaches, doglegs on the river
2/4/86
tj8.25v
Leaving Home [Driving ther Valley Road]
First line: It shocks even yet, that plunge
2/5/86
tj8.26
On a Statue That Failed to Find a Place [Not] in the Park Blocks
First line: Just because it isn’t there
2/23/86
tj8.26v
Our City]
First line: Not just people
2/24/86
tj8.27
Our City]
First line: ...those muskrats determined to know
2/24/86
tj8.27v
In Tiny’s Neighborhood
First line: A wide hat comes in, a bald head
2/25/86
tj8.28
untitled
First line: Today who are you? Yesterday
2/26/86
tj8.28
untitled
First line: Before light you hear it, the slow
2/28/86
tj8.28v
Distinguished People]
First line: You know how it is most of
2/28/86
tj8.29
Distinguished People (contd.)]
First line: And even yet sometimes you meet
2/28/86
tj8.29v
untitled
First line: The Red River is red as it scours north
4/23/86
tj8.30
Utah,] For Instance
First line: Kansas. Horizon and foreground
4/24/86
tj8.30v
For Instance
First line: Carrie Nation, for instance, like a farmer drove
4/24/86
tj8.31
page of prose
First line: The Grays gave...
4/24/86
tj8.31v
page of prose
First line: At reading:...
4/26/86
tj8.32
page of prose
First line: At Hongkong Airport
6/19/86
tj8.32v
Commitment
First line: When you’re away and the sun
6/21/86
tj8.33
untitled
First line: Little books inside their shadows trundle
6/22/86
tj8.33v
untitled
First line: Because we are slow enough, time
6/22/86
tj8.34
untitled
First line: The old suitcase hangs on the shelf and almost
6/23/86
tj8.34v
untitled
First line: They wear so many sequins that
6/24/86
tj8.35
Chairman: an Unofficial Life]
First line: It goes like this—they discover tracks
6/25/86
tj8.35v
Chairman: an Unofficial Life
First line: It went like this: they discovered some tracks
6/25/86
tj8.36
untitled
First line: The arbitrary parts of a day - inside
6/26/86
tj8.36v
Paso por Aqui]
First line: Comanches assumed that Buffalo Gap
6/26/86
tj8.37
untitled
First line: Thunder goes out and comes back
6/27/86
tj8.37v
untitled
First line: Rain so gray it opened the sky
6/28/86
tj8.38
untitled
First line: Nightfall bent itself carefully over
6/29/86
tj8.38v
Tenacious
First line: Voices cyring in the jungle weave
6/30/86
tj8.39
untitled
First line: The air hangs in quiet curtains
7/1/86
tj8.39v
God’s Word[meditation on Crab Creek]
First line: Tributaries avoid this water. All the way
7/17/86
tj8.40
Wind from a Wing]
First line: Something outside my window in the dark
7/18/86
tj8.41
Page of prose
First line: Discussion...
7/19/86
tj8.42
Page of prose
First line: At Banff
8/10/86
tj8.42v
Transcending Earth]
First line: Clouds claim dawn before we do
8/12/86
tj8.43
untitled
First line: Called by that valley only the world
8/13/86
tj8.43v
untitled
First line: Deep grooves carve all over where glacier rivers
8/13/86
tj8.44
untitled
First line: When you say that to me, before knowing
8/14/86
tj8.45
untitled
First line: It was fearful, paying close attention to
8/15/86
tj8.46
untitled
First line: These are words through windows
10/12/86
tj8.47
On the Campus at St. Bonaventure[At a Small College]
First line: Words come forward out of the stone
10/13/86
tj8.47v
Monument for a Wrinkle in the Pavement Near Strong Hall]
First line: The years 1914-1986 (in case these numbers
10/15/86
tj8.48v
untitled
First line: Each person has a character that could
10/18/86
tj8.49
untitled
First line: What existed will be gone, spirited
10/20/86
tj8.49v
Politics of One
First line: In the room where they like each other
10/22/86
tj8.49v
untitled
First line: A player pretends. A citizen remains
10/22/86
tj8.50
untitled
First line: You are doing well, old man, old
10/26/86
tj8.51v
untitled
First line: In valleys too high for summer, nobody
11/5/86
tj8.52
untitled
First line: Not the news, but the olds is what
11/6/86
tj8.52v
Your Life]
First line: Someone walks toward the mirror
11/7/86
tj8.53
untitled
First line: What the other people are feeling
11/8/86
tj8.53v
untitled
First line: You stand and fall your life, your power
2/4/87
tj8.54
untitled
First line: Under Mesa Avenue a culvert, a great
2/5/87
tj8.54v
page of prose
First line: In Flight...
3/23/87
tj8.55
untitled
First line: History is mostly six inches high, you see
3/25/87
tj8.55v
untitled
First line: A red X on our door faded but still
3/27/87
tj8.56
untitled
First line: Through the slow hours they give music, a dim light
3/28/87
tj8.56v
Spirit of Place: Great Blue Heron]
First line: At first he looked the same, balanced
3/29/87
tj8.57
untitled
First line: They strike a chord but nobody sings
4/2/87
tj8.57v
untitled
First line: They lean this country outside but hold it
4/2/87
tj8.58
untitled
First line: A few times in your life, climbing a stair
4/5/87
tj8.59
page of prose
First line: Today is last...
4/8/87
tj8.59v
page of prose
First line: Most writing workshops...
7/27/87
tj8.60
Visit to Dale’s House [In the Backyard]
First line: Something beyond us bends in the evening
7/29/87
tj8.60v
page of prose
First line: Past farms...
7/29/87
tj8.61
untitled
First line: At San Jose the taste of regret rose in my throat
8/9/87
tj8.61v
untitled
First line: On earth on a certain time a tremor
8/10/87
tj8.62
untitled
First line: A sharp-shin hawk studies bird watchers
8/11/87
tj8.62v
Pieces of Paper
First line: A few pages lift and go forth, tattered and scorched
8/12/87
tj8.63
untitled
First line: Not even caring who your parents were
8/13/87
tj8.63v
untitled
First line: Faint, scurrying rivers of mist
8/14/87

Stenographer Notebook (red) with two pages, June 19, 1988Return to Top

Container(s): 2.4

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj9.1
Memorial Park
First line: This is the future they sacrificed for
6/19/88

Loose daily writing pages relating to USIA tour , September 15, 1991-October 17, 1991Return to Top

Container(s): 2.5

Yellow narrow-ruled notebook, August 1982; and January 1983-June 1983Return to Top

Container(s): 2.6

Container(s) Description Dates
item
tj13.2v
untitled
First line: Wove so far stars taught the hands
8/8/82
tj13.2v
untitled
First line: That place on the lawn in early fog may be
8/9/82
tj13.3
Adapting]
First line: Whatever makes a shadow says
8/10/82
tj13.3
At Menucha One Day
First line: My time woven too close, I came
8/10/82
tj13.4
page of prose
First line: Joe...
8/10/82
tj13.5
page of prose
First line: Dream: Two men...
8/11/82
tj13.6
Woven Sentences]
First line: What I want to know is what did I do or
8/11/82
tj13.6v
Looking Back on the Weaving Room
First line: It will be the days and the sound of the sewing
8/11/82
tj13.7
They Say
First line: Somebody else told Goldy about
8/12/82
tj13.7
Next TIme
First line: Next time what I’d do is look at
8/12/82
tj13.8
page of prose
First line: I got off on the scenes...
8/13/82
tj13.8
notes
First line: For the workshop:
1/29/83
tj13.9
untitled
First line: Running one is immediately poor
1/29/83
tj13.9
untitled
First line: What did you hear when you passed the woods?
1/31/83
tj13.9v
untitled
First line: Where I ran through the forest in the early morning
2/1/83
tj13.10
untitled
First line: Late, after sunlight, after
2/1/83
tj13.10
untitled
First line: It comes to you that a fire
2/2/83
tj13.10v
untitled
First line: In the swirl of all we meet
2/3/83
tj13.11
untitled
First line: Eye of earth closes, evening
2/9/83
tj13.12
Shy Kiva]
First line: Two notes, mild, repeated calls
2/10/83
tj13.13
untitled
First line: Years, and someone comes back. Little pieces
2/11/83
tj13.14
Reading at Las Vegas [Panel at AWP]
First line: Someone named Canal talked about a bear
2/12/83
tj13.14
untitled
First line: Take rivers or mountains - they go on easy
2/12/83
tj13.15
untitled
First line: Green time dreams endlessly out of
2/13/83
tj.13.16
untitled
First line: Evening leads out past palms that lean
3/4/83
tj13.16
untitled
First line: A voice wanders in. It avoids the scattered
3/5/83
tj13.17
untitled
First line: Palm trees wait while history comes, a wind
3/5/83
tj13.17
Sentences]
First line: Whatever is coming toward us begins to spell
3/6/83
tj13.18
untitled
First line: This time low to the floor and sniffing
3/7/83
tj13.19
untitled
First line: We four birds are flying around
3/7/83
tj13.20
page of prose
First line: Last night birthday...
3/8/83
tj13.21
page of prose
First line: Reading mss...
3/8/83
tj13.22
untitled
First line: A color is missing. They ask me
3/9/83
tj13.23
At the Tetons]
First line: Beyond the cold wrists of the aspen
3/12/83
tj13.24
Group Is the Resource (talk)
First line: A Priest of the Imagination
3/19/83
tj13.25
At the Twin Cities in Minnesota, Spring, 1983 [Learning at Minnesota’s University]
First line: Momentous events flow around us
3/18/83
tj13.26
letter (not by WS)
First line: Dear Basia...
4/24/83
tj13.27
untitled
First line: From cold, and when the trees are shaking
4/22/83
tj13.28
untitled
First line: Waves, the way to lift, the way to descend
4/8/83
tj13.29
untitled
First line: At early dark when the world was younger
4/9/83
tj13.30
untitled
First line: They took the water from the river for awhile
4/18/83
tj13.30v
untitled
First line: The house where you lived, its overwhelming
4/20/83
tj13.31
On the Tillamook Road (story start)
First line: On the curves...
tj13.32
On Earth
First line: Any sun that comes, even one not ours
4/21/83
tj13.33
untitled
First line: In my steps across the prairies meadowlarks
4/22/83
tj13.34
page of prose
First line: At Sylvia...
4/23/83
tj13.35
untitled
First line: One part of the earth yielded to light
5/3/83
tj13.36
Lights and Las Vegas]
First line: Studying their shadows, these buildings pose
5/4/83
tj13.37
page of prose
First line: Intentions have side effects...
5/5/83
tj13.38
untitled
First line: How still it is here, even the sea
5/7/83
tj13.39
Sitka]
First line: When did the real time end? A gull
5/7/83
tj13.40
untitled
First line: The short ones look up. They have little trouble
5/8/83
tj13.40
untitled
First line: They killed some of us, we killed
5/9/83
tj13.41
Sound in the Morning]
First line: Who sang, that morning?
5/9/83
tj13.42
untitled
First line: Bringing their faces to make a picture
6/25/83
tj13.42
untitled
First line: Serene,” the dove says, “Is my name
6/25/83

Black notebook, January 9, 1992-February 15, 1992Return to Top

Container(s): 2.7

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Pacifism--Poetry.
  • Pacifism--United States.
  • Poetry -- Authorship.
  • Poetry -- Study and teaching.
  • Poetry--20th century.
  • Poets, American--20th century.
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Conscientious objectors -- United States.

Personal Names

  • Stafford, Dorothy
  • Stafford, William, 1914-1993--Archives

Corporate Names

  • Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Or.)

Geographical Names

  • Kansas.
  • Oregon.

Other Creators

  • Personal Names
    • Stafford, Kim (creator)