A Ritual To Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford

My poem, Call To Prayer, is included in this anthology edited by Becca J.R. Bachman. It also contains Worthy Company, an introductory essay, co-authored by myself and Kim Stafford.

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This collection assembles poems that each in one way or another are in dialogue with the life, work, and legacy of William Stafford (1914-1993), one of the most important American poets of the second half of the twentieth century. Echoing Stafford’s great poem, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other,” these poems comprise a prism of the many ways in which subsequent poets have found Stafford’s example full of meaning, guidance, and support.

Throughout this collection one hears of predicaments that arise out of our relations with each other. What do we owe to our fellow humans? What do we love in them? What do we fear? What do we hope and pray for that might be better than the world we have? What must we condemn as simply unacceptable?

— from the Introduction