{"id":5540,"date":"2016-12-09T09:55:48","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T16:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=5540"},"modified":"2016-12-09T09:55:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T16:55:48","slug":"william-stafford-any-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/09\/william-stafford-any-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"William Stafford – Any Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any Morning
\nby William Stafford<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Just lying on the couch and being happy.
\nOnly humming a little, the quiet sound in the head.
\nTrouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has
\nso much to do in the world.<\/p>\n

People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can\u2019t
\nmonitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget.
\nWhen dawn flows over the hedge you can
\nget up and act busy.<\/p>\n

Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven
\nleft lying around, can be picked up and saved.
\nPeople won\u2019t even see that you have them,
\nthey are so light and easy to hide.<\/p>\n

Later in the day you can act like the others.
\nYou can shake your head. You can frown.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems<\/a>, by William Stafford<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by incolor16<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

I think there is a great deal of wisdom in this poem. It is a reminder of how to conduct oneself while pretending to be part of the world. Yes, at work, at the store, saying hello to neighbors, do be practical, be responsible, be concerned. Or at least, appear to be.<\/p>\n

But in those private moments, perhaps early in the morning before others have awakened, before the \u201cimportant\u201d activity of the day, before the clock has begun to tick, find those languid moments where sweetness abounds in the tiny movements and forgotten corners. On some fundamental level, this is our real job as human beings, to discover these moments, to bathe in them, to gather them like pollen \u2014 and then, to go about our lives making honey.<\/p>\n

You can frown, if it is expected of you. But it is hard to do with the sweetness still on your tongue.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: William Stafford<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Way It Is: New & Selected Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nMy Name is William Tell<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nDancing with Joy: 99 Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nEven in Quiet Places<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nAsk Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"William<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nWilliam Stafford<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US (1914 \u2013 1993) Timeline<\/a>
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

More poetry by William Stafford<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any Morning by William Stafford Just lying on the couch and being happy. Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head. Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has so much to do in the world. People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can\u2019t monitor you all the time, and sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2019,939,2018],"class_list":["post-5540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-not-doing","tag-stillness","tag-william-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5541,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions\/5541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}