Sometimes from sorrow, for no reason,
you sing. For no reason, you accept
the way of being lost, cutting loose
from all else and electing a world
where you go where you want to.
Arbitrary, a sound comes, a reminder
that a steady center is holding
all else. If you listen, that sound
will tell where it is, and you
can slide your way past trouble.
Certain twisted monsters
always bar the path – but that’s when
you get going best, glad to be lost,
learning how real it is
here on the earth, again and again.
“Cutting Loose” by William Stafford. Originally published as a broadside by Palaemon, 1983. Presented here as published in Dancing with Joy: 99 Poems, edited by Roger Housden. © Random House, 2009.
Credit Source: With thanks to A Year of Being Here and to Parker J. Palmer via OnBeing.
Words for the Year 
Each day, you send out your raft of poems, each day I climb on and I am rescued.
Thank you Christina!
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Kabir, your note is a breath of fresh air. Thank you for reading and for taking time to say hello. Much love to you, c-
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This is the way Stafford wrote his poems. This one, A Course in Creative Writing, sounds similar. https://theuncarvedblog.com/2011/01/15/william-stafford%e2%80%94a-course-in-creative-writing/
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Many thanks, Ken, hope you are well.
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The perfect poem for me today. I love William Stafford. Thanks for sharing.
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Hi Ali, the more Stafford I read, the more appreciative I am of his work. I’m not sure he ever wrote a bad poem (or at least never published any bad ones). 🙂
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Christina, I so agree. I love his poetry. I am happy to say he is from the great state of Oregon just like I am.
Take care.
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