Dear Bibliophiles!

On December 20th, at 3 pm, our Zoom gathering will be hosted by Kim Stafford, who recently completed two years as Oregon’s Poet Laureate. Here’s the (new) link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81054571039

December 12, 2020

As I sat still this morning at my writing desk, before turning on the light, in the darkness and silence the weather in my mind began to clear from yesterday’s worries and conundrums, something began to come into focus. In time, I turned on the light, and wrote down this thought: 

A loss is first a pang, then a memory. Then , by writing or telling, it may become a story. Then, if told with curiosity and courage, the sorrow becomes a possession, an element of identity, and finally a treasure, a smudge of wisdom.

Then, as my habit each morning early, I explored this thought by shaping it into something like a poem:

               Schooling Sorrow 

When a sorrow’s young, it’s pure—stunned 

pang at breakup, betrayal, failure, death. 

You weep, rant, brood, slump. And then  

in the morning, sorrow starts its epic 

journey into memory, becomes an island 

in your archipelago of sufferings. 

Then, if you are strong, and lucky to have 

a listener—you begin to apprehend its quirks, 

to tell it, shape it, watch it grow into a story. 

And if you tell your story well, with curiosity

and courage, it then becomes a possession,

and in time a treasure, a smudge of wisdom. 

This can be your gift, your offering—but

if you don’t school your sorrow into story

it can never be your friend.

—Kim Stafford