{"id":6147,"date":"2018-07-13T07:45:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T14:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6147"},"modified":"2018-07-13T07:45:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T14:45:08","slug":"william-stafford-you-reading-this-be-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/13\/william-stafford-you-reading-this-be-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"William Stafford – You Reading This, Be Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

You Reading This, Be Ready
\nby William Stafford<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
\nHow sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
\nWhat scent of old wood hovers, what softened
\nsound from outside fills the air?<\/p>\n

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
\nthan the breathing respect that you carry
\nwherever you go right now? Are you waiting
\nfor time to show you some better thoughts?<\/p>\n

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
\nnew glimpse that you found; carry into evening
\nall that you want from this day. This interval you spent
\nreading or hearing this, keep it for life \u2014<\/p>\n

What can anyone give you greater than now,
\nstarting here, right in this room, when you turn around?<\/em><\/p>\n

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


\/ Image by Sloan Poe<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Starting here,,,<\/i><\/p>\n

William Stafford starts his poem with this phrase and then repeats it prominently throughout. This is a poem about being present. It is a poem about noticing where we are within the present moment \u2014 and about noticing what shares the space of now with us.<\/p>\n

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
\nHow sunlight creeps along a shining floor?<\/i><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a moment to stop being lost in our thoughts and our plans for the day and just notice where we are, right now. As the mind settles, the senses become our allies. They start to wake up and notice the quiet beauty and little mysteries right next to us.<\/p>\n

Everything awaits the gift of awareness. Every phenomenon, no matter how small, is a miracle just waiting for us to notice it, so that it can lead us back to right here.<\/p>\n

What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
\nsound from outside fills the air?<\/i><\/p>\n

This is how we can stop using the senses as one more distraction but as a gentle way to bring our awareness back to center.<\/p>\n

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
\nthan the breathing respect that you carry
\nwherever you go right now? <\/i><\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that a wonderful line? More important than anything we may do or think, it is our \u201cbreathing respect\u201d that we bring with us into the present moment that is our true gift to the world. That sense of breathing, being present as we notice the world, means we are actually here, ourselves. This is showing proper respect to the world. Breath is communion. Breath is a living connection with the world. Breath brings us back to center in the heart within the living moment.<\/p>\n

Breath and attention, these say, here I am. If we aren\u2019t breathing fully, and if we aren\u2019t paying attention, they we are saying that we\u2019d rather be somewhere else. We have severed our connection. That is not showing proper respect.<\/p>\n

Are you waiting
\nfor time to show you some better thoughts?<\/i><\/p>\n

We think we are waiting for that perfect thought that somehow gives us permission to be present. We already have that permission. And thoughts don\u2019t work that way. We just notice. We settle into ourselves. We breathe. And we become present.<\/p>\n

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
\nnew glimpse that you found; carry into evening
\nall that you want from this day. This interval you spent
\nreading or hearing this, keep it for life \u2014<\/i><\/p>\n

This is important advice, whether talking about meditation and prayer or simply the artist\u2019s reverie\u2013 what we notice, starting here in the present moment, that feeling of life and peace and magic, we don\u2019t want to leave it behind. It should not be relegated to our moments of sitting still. We can learn to carry it with us as we shift into other activities and different phases of the day.<\/p>\n

No strict dividing line between the bliss of the moment and the movement of the wider day. As we become more attuned to our meditation, we invite the meditation into our work, our social interactions, and the changing rhythms of the evening. It is all meditation. When we find the present moment in the day, it is not lost in the night.<\/p>\n

What can anyone give you greater than now,
\nstarting here, right in this room, when you turn around?<\/i><\/p>\n

Being awake and fully ourselves right now, that is what we all want. Beneath our other drives that is what we truly seek. And it is always available to us. So why do we exile ourselves from being alive in this moment? All we have to do is turn around and start here.<\/p>\n

Be ready.<\/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":"

You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a shining floor? What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air? Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever […]<\/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":[1276,1465,525,1510,1245,2018],"class_list":["post-6147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-attention","tag-being-present","tag-breath","tag-now","tag-present-moment","tag-william-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6147","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=6147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6148,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6147\/revisions\/6148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}